Fr. JC Maximilian

[“The Disputation of the Eucharist” by Raphael]

Well there seems to be some trouble in Dodge City, or in this case Capernaum which is where the events in today’s Gospel took place. It might be a little confusing as to what the people are murmuring about in today’s Gospel reading. Don’t worry; its not because your memory is going or you weren’t paying attention last week.

Last weekend, just in the Diocese of Trenton, we transferred the Solemnity of the Assumption from Saturday, August 15 to Sunday, August 16. Mostly we did that because our cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady under the title of her Assumption, so it was a time of special celebration for the Diocese. However, it means we missed a part of the “Bread of Life” discourse that we have been hearing from St. John’s Gospel for the past several weeks. In fact we missed the key point of the whole discourse, and it is that key point that has the people in today’s Gospel reading all upset and murmuring.

So what did Jesus say last weekend that has all the people talking? Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. . . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. . . . For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

This is VERY serious stuff. The people listening to Jesus immediately recognized that He was not talking metaphorically. Jesus was not saying that as bread is food for the body, so His words are food for the soul. Jesus makes it very clear that He is really giving us His Body as the Bread of Life and His Blood as the Cup of Salvation. Yup! His real Body and His real Blood for us to eat and drink.

In today’s Gospel reading we hear that many of those following Jesus said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” I think that the one commentator whom I read this week probably had it a bit more accurately when he said that the people started to cry out that Jesus was crazy. CRAZY! How can someone give us his body to eat and his blood to drink? Well, OK, there are some people who eat human flesh but they are crazy. Is Jesus telling us that we need to become crazy?

As a result, we hear that “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” In other words they abandoned Jesus. As an interesting aside, the chapter and verse numbers in the Bible are not technically part of the sacred text. They were added centuries later by some monks just to make it easier to find passages in the Bible. The only place in the New Testament where we have the numbers 666 is right here, St. John’s Gospel 6:66 “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

Of course not everyone abandoned Jesus. He turned to the Twelve Apostles and asked if they too would leave Him, and Peter, the spokesman for the group said, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” So who were being the crazy ones? The disciples who abandoned Jesus, going back to their former way of life, or Peter and the rest of the Apostles? Of course we know that Peter and the Apostles chose the better part, but was their faith in Jesus reasonable?

Often times people think that faith and reason do not go together; you either have one or the other. Or you have reason, which can take you so far, but then you need to make a “leap of faith,” as if that leap is something unreasonable or beyond reason. I would like to propose, however, that faith IS reasonable; and I am in good company in doing so because it seems to be the major theme of Pope Benedict XVI recently, and it was the theme of one of Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals. So how is faith reasonable?

Let’s just look at the Bread of Life discourse as a whole to see. If you go back about four weeks, when we started reading from the Bread of Life discourse we started with the account of the multiplication of loaves and fish. People had been following and listening to Jesus for a couple days. Something in His words spoke directly to the deepest desires of their hearts. Jesus spoke to the desire that really is at the center of every human heart, the desire for true happiness. The people recognized, through Jesus’ words, that they often looked for happiness in the wrong places – in human things which by their very nature are limited and fallible. Yet every human heart yearns for infinite happiness, and this was what Jesus was talking about when He spoke about the Kingdom of God. Yet the people wanted some verification of what Jesus was saying. They knew it corresponded to the desires of their hearts, but was Jesus really telling them the truth about how to find this eternal happiness. To show His authority, His truthfulness, Jesus worked many signs. He healed the sick, He cast out demons, and at the beginning of the Bread of Life discourse Jesus took a few loaves and a couple of fish, and made them more than enough to feed a huge crowd – over 5000 people. The people clearly saw this sign of Jesus’ power, because they immediately wanted to make Him king. Jesus realized that they wanted to make Him an earthly king, that they still were not getting it, so He went across the lake to Capernaum. The people, after witnessing Jesus’ great sign of feeding them and still longing for the reality that Jesus spoke about, followed Him to Capernaum. And it is there, in Capernaum that Jesus states very clearly what they must do to have eternal life, “. . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. . . .”

Despite hearing what they heard, that which corresponded to the deepest needs of their hearts, and seeing the miracles that Jesus worked as a sign of His authority, most of those that followed Him could not accept this way to eternal life. I would argue that they were being very unreasonable. It is like not following the medical advice of your doctor with whom you have developed a good rapport with and who has helped your through so many other times of illness; it would be unreasonable not to trust the doctor now just because what they say is hard to hear.

St. Peter and the other Apostles, on the other hand are being reasonable. Basically Peter is saying, “Lord, we really do not understand what you are telling us about your flesh being true food and your blood being true drink, but your words correspond to our hearts’ deepest desires, and we have seen the miracles that you have performed. Clearly you are the Holy One of God. While what you are saying may seem incomprehensible to us right now, we trust you. We know that you will lead us to all truth, all understanding, all joy, and eternal life and happiness. Even without understanding it all, it would be unreasonable for us not to follow you.”

St. Peter is right. Jesus often will ask us to do things that seem incomprehensible to us. I really did not understand why, after only being a priest for a few months, I was being asked to deal with cancer, but I knew the reasonableness of following Christ Jesus. Maybe some of you are facing things you do not understand – illness, unemployment, family problems. Do you recognize the reasonableness of following Jesus even in your not understanding? Are you staying to follow Jesus, or are you leaving to return to your former way of life?