Difficult Teaching

Gospel
John 6.56-69

Jesus said to the crowd: 56‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’ 59He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ 61But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. 65And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’

66Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. 67So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ 68Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’

Dulverton Sermon

I wonder how easy, or otherwise, you and I find it to accept our Lord’s teaching in today’s gospel that the Eucharistic food of his body and blood is central to the life of the church and to living the Christian life. We cannot get away from the blunt truth of his words that being a Christian is only possible when our lives become united with his by the means that he has provided. If we do not accept this, and act upon it, we may claim the title of Christian for ourselves but in every other sense we have chosen to turn back and no longer walk with him. Our discipleship then becomes either self deception or sub standard.

In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread’. At face value this is a straightforward petition of trusting children asking their generous Father to supply the nourishment to sustain the physical life he has given us. But it is also a spiritual petition for the ‘Bread of Life’, the ‘Body of Christ’ received in the Eucharist. One of the Church Fathers(St Peter Chrysologus) put it like this:

“The Father in heaven urges us, as his children, to ask for the bread of heaven. Christ himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to the altar, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.”

This teaching may be hard to comprehend and accept but if we are faithful and regular in approaching the Lord’s table with true desire to be united with the Lord then the Holy Spirit will work in us this miracle of the Eucharist, in which Christ himself is made real and present to us in a unique and special way, The saintly Padre Pio of Pietrelcino preached;

“In the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, in this sacrament of love, we have true life, a blessed life, a true happiness because in it we receive not only those graces that perfect us but the very author of those graces.”

And what about frequency of communion with the body and blood of Christ? Well, the Lord’s Prayer speaks of ‘daily bread’ but in reality of the Church provides the food the Christian soul will be guided by the depth and urgency of its hunger within. The Church strongly urges the faithful to receive the holy eucharist on Sundays and feast days, or more often still, even daily and recommends preparation at least annually, possibly at Easter, through use of the sacrament of reconciliation.

It appears impossible to avoid our Lord’s question at the end of this teaching ‘Will you stay or will you go?’ I pray that God may grant us grace to join Simon Peter in his reply ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’