Word to the Wise
Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 3rd Week of Easter - Sat
[Acts 9:31-42 and John 6:60-69]Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said, "This teaching is hard; who can accept it?".......As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered him, "Mastser, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God." [John]
Catholic belief in the Eucharist is a "line in the sand" for many Christians. The end of the chapter containing the "Bread of Life" discourse in the Gospel According to John (Ch. 6) shows that this belief was difficult to accept when Jesus preached it and the result was that "many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him." In dramatic fashion, Jesus challenges the Twelve: "Do you also want to leave?" Peter's profession of faith is equally dramatic: "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
Earlier in the passage Jesus says: "The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life." When we celebrate the Eucharist, we do more than invoke the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. We first listen to the Word of God proclaimed and preached. Sadly, at many parish missions that I have preached, I have heard the complaints of parishioners about the quality of preaching they hear, even when they otherwise love their pastors. I can only suggest to them that they read the assigned scriptures in advance and imagine how they would preach on those and then see if the preacher on Sunday agrees with them!!! The pulpit is also called "the altar of the Word" and the people should be fed with Jesus' words of Spirit and life. The teaching on the Eucharist can be so proclaimed that what happens at the other altar - the altar of sacrifice - takes on its full meaning. Jesus' words of eternal life are realized fully then in "the Bread of Life." AMEN