Word to the Wise
Saturday, April 28, 2007 - Saturday in the Third Week of Easter
[Acts 9:31-42 and John 6:60-69]Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life....."
These words come at the end of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. This is the chapter that contains the "bread of life" discourse and the teaching of Jesus about the gift of his body and blood. The gospel quotes some of the disciples as saying, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" Indeed, it is a matter of faith. A young woman whom I received into the church one Easter responded to my question about the whole process by saying, "Once I accepted the eucharist, the rest was easy." It is amazing to me, however, that there are people who will admit the divinity of Christ but will not accept his words about the eucharist. They cannot accept that the bread and wine offered at the celebration of Mass becomes the body and blood of Christ. If God can do anything, why can't God do this? The great Catholic Southern writer, Flannery O'Connor, put it even more bluntly. She was sitting quietly during a discussion about the eucharist and when her hosts turned and asked her opinion, she is supposed to have said, "If it is only a symbol, then I say the hell with it." When others had turned away as a result of what Jesus said, there came the incredible moment when he looks at the apostles and asks: Do you also want to leave? In considering the eucharist, we must realize that without this belief, we are not the Catholic Church, whatever we may be. If Jesus has the words of eternal life and those words include his teaching about the eucharist, where else can we go? AMEN
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