Every Sunday, Bishop Edward Malesic writes a Scripture reflection for the faithful. Follow the bishop on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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Decisions, decisions, decisions. We make them every day. Some of them are of little importance, like the flavor of ice cream we pick. Others are of much greater importance, like the career we choose.
Today’s readings are asking for the supreme decision. In the First Reading, the people were asked to choose sides on religion. They were given the choice of the God of Israel or the pagan gods of their past. Joshua was clear in his decision: “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” The others in the crowd agreed with him, recalling all that the LORD had done for them along the journey out of Egypt into the Promised Land. They too said, “Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”
The Gospel today also calls for a decision. We have been reading from John 6, which is known as the “Bread of Life Discourse.” After feeding the five thousand with five barley loaves and two fish, Jesus went with his disciples to the other side (and walked on water for a while to get there!). The people followed Jesus looking for more bread. Jesus used the opportunity to talk about a different bread. He was going to talk about himself as the “the bread come down from Heaven.” In that sermon, he told the people not to work for food that perishes, but food that “endures for eternal life,” food that he would give to us. He pushed further and said, (T)he bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” This was not received well, but Jesus pushed ahead, saying, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink…so whoever eats me will live because of me.”
Because of our Lord’s teaching on the Eucharist, we find people in the Gospel muttering to themselves, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” And then, for me, one of the saddest lines of all scripture describes what happened next, “As a result of this, many his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”
Yes, the Eucharist, which is meant to gather people, sometimes divides us into camps of believers and non-believers, those who take the Lord at his word and those who think he must have meant something else. St. Thomas More said this: “For surely if Christ was not God, he was not a good man either, since he plainly said he was God.” People left Jesus because they would not accept him as the bread from Heaven and must have thought that he was either a liar or a lunatic, but certainly not the Lord (to borrow from a phrase from G.K. Chesterton).
After so many disciples had left him because they had a difficult time accepting that Jesus was giving his flesh to eat, Jesus turned and said to his remaining apostles, “Don’t you also want to leave?”
Peter said it well when he replied, “Master, 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.”
And now there is the decision for all of us, the most important decision really for our lives. Will we accept the teaching of Jesus that he is the Bread of Life? The Son of God? The Lord of our lives? Will we accept that the bread we eat at Mass is his glorified flesh and the wine we consecrate is his resurrected blood? In short, should we stay or should we go?
Many have left. Many no longer believe. Some leave because of Church scandals. Some leave more slowly, simply drifting away. Others are more direct and say, “I don’t believe anymore.” What about us? Can we muster the faith of Peter who called Jesus, “Master.”
Let me finish by saying I have encountered so many people, many of them young people, who have come to faith simply by adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. There he speaks to them (and us) heart to heart. And there he asks us, “Will you stay or will you go.” Let’s resolve to always stay with Jesus — he is the Bread of Life that will nourish us along the way until we reach the goal, Heaven itself.
Have a blessed week everyone.