August 19th 2012: Sunday Gospel Reflection

John 6:51-58

In today’s reading from the Gospel of John Chapter 6 we hear Jesus continue to speak about this bread come down from heaven that will satisfy people for eternity and how Jesus Himself is that bread. The crowds who are following Jesus after he multiplied the loaves and fishes do not understand what Jesus is teaching them. In these seven verses of chapter six Jesus speaks as explicit and straightforward as possible to the point of tired redundancy:  

-unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.
-whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
-my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
-whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.

Jesus was trying to make clear what was so unbelievable and difficult for His followers to understand. It is one thing to say ‘the bread that I multiple is true food’ or ‘my teachings are like bread that will give you eternal life’, but the Christian message given to us by Jesus is not so much about what Jesus says or even does as much as who Jesus is. Unlike any other religion Christianity is rooted in a Person, the Person of Jesus. We do not simply listen to His ‘path’, ‘message’ or ‘dharma’ but we imitate Him and are called to take Jesus into every part of ourselves, to consume Him. 

This is what we do in our 7 Sacraments: we immerse people in water at Baptism like Jesus told us to (‘baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’) that they might be fully immersed into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We break bread together and receive the Body and Blood of Christ each Sunday, as Jesus told us to, when at the Last Supper He gave His Disciples a ritual to share bread and wine to make Him present.

Toward the end of John 6 many followers of Jesus say that this teaching is too difficult to believe so they walk away. Jesus never chases them down or waters down His message, He offers the Truth of who He is and we have to decide how to respond. In today’s 1^st reading and 2^nd reading we are offered one way to respond; with Wisdom. God gives us Wisdom through the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. When we encounter doubts or teachings that are too hard for us to believe or to understand we should seek Wisdom by responding to questions or doubts with what St. Anselm called “Faith seeking Understanding”. It is good to question beliefs about our Faith and Church but that questioning should never cut us off from that Church, like the people who walked away from Jesus, but should be a part of our journeying deeper into relationship with the person of Jesus.

-How do I respond to doubts in my faith or in the Church?

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