Gospel Reflections for August 26 2018
Will you stay or leave?
Today is the final week of several Sundays that feature Jesus teaching about the Eucharist. In each week Jesus speaks to large crowds, and yet some still find it hard to accept. But notice what the crowd does at the end of His speech, and what Jesus does not do in response!
Like the current political and even religious debates about church issues around the country today, a number of people in the crowd “shout out” their opinions to Jesus. It is certainly understandable that some in the crowd might feel this way. The Eucharist is not an easy event to understand. How bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Our Lord is a mystery that can take time to comprehend. A few speeches are, apparently, not enough.
Some modern theologians think that Jesus must have been speaking only symbolically, or that he certainly wasn’t being literal about bread and wine becoming His Body and Blood. It would certainly be easier to think that it must be just symbolic, and that Jesus could not have meant that the Eucharist is His real objective presence.
After Jesus speaks, about half the crowd begins to walk away. But why would they leave if they felt Jesus was speaking only symbolically? After all, a symbol is easy to accept. Who would have a hard time with that? Clearly, they recognized Jesus meant the Eucharist was His real objective presence!
Most significant of all in this Gospel account, you will notice what Jesus does not do next. He does not run after those who are leaving and yelling, “Wait! …Come back! …the Eucharist is only a symbol!” He does not do that because He clearly means it is not just a symbol. He clearly means that we actually receive Him when we receive the Eucharist.
The crowd may or may not change their mind but Jesus will not change the meaning of the Eucharist just to make it more politically correct or even easier to understand or a ruse to get more people to follow Him.
The Eucharist remains with us today after all these years …still perhaps difficult to understand at times …but still His Real Presence that Our Lord intends for us to receive. Let us simply follow His will.
He knows it will take time for many of us to comprehend, so we will hear these same Gospels next year as well!
God Bless!
Fr. Dave
It helps me when I hear Peter talk about the alternative to believing what Jesus is saying, “to whom shall we go? You have the words of life!” There is no acceptable alternative.
Peter’s words are our words.
We have an incredible Faith of Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it!!!Jesus is our loving God’s precious Son!!! We follow our Jesus in love!!! Loveeeeeeee the Holy Eucharist!! Loveeeee receiving our Jesus’, body and blood and love our Jesus living in us!!! and then we must be our precious Jesus to others !!!
Beautiful Faith, Beautiful Life, Beautiful Jesus!!! and Beautiful You Father Dave and all the Beautiful priests who give us our precious Jesus in Holy Communion!! We are soooooooooooooooooooooooo blessed !!!
Loveeeeeeeeeeeeee, Franca and Dick
Thank you!
It is interesting that Jesus didn’t soften His words to please the crowd.
Since they didn’t accept Him at His word, He let them go
And I love the next part…turning to his disciples, He said, “Will you also go away?””
Peter’s answer was reassuring for all of us.
I take Jesus at His word.
“We live by faith, not by sight”
Yes, Peter’s words are our words too.
I think that Jesus would have corrected a misunderstanding because of the belief in not drinking blood or eating a human. But also there is the thought of cleaning house, Jesus spoke the truth but he also needed unity among the followers as they were going to be the next generation leaders and as we can see in our church today there can be a lot of division in what to believe,. Look how many denominations just in the USA.,.
All I know is that Communion is the real Body and Blood of our Lord.. No doubt on this one. I was at St. Peter Clavier Church for a couple of Tuesdays about adoration as they are planning on having it there. The teachings were really good. One of the articles was the Testimony of Catalina .. It brought to mind of what a privilege you as a Priest have in offering up the Mass. It is such an honor for you and you Priests are really blessed as we are for being a part of it as well.
Well said! I am glad that St. Peter Claver is considering an Adoration Chapel.
Fr. Dave
I have such a great joy in the fact that Jesus gave us free will to choose to believe with faith in the Eucharist, and to stay and not walk away.
Like Peter ,Pope Francis’s trip to Ireland shows us how to help heal the church and its people. Pray with our end. Go to reconciliation. Works of mercy. Show mercy in our love to others. ( my understanding and opinions. )
God Bless the church , Pope Francis and the whole world.
Jane
Yes, God bless the Holy Father!
Dear Father Dave,
Thanks again for your insightful synopsis.
As I’ve mentioned before, the Eucharist is surreal, momentous, and above all … holy.
In writing, we could say that the story is the Eucharist, and the plot of the Eucharist is the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus. Jesus, our Holy Communion.
God bless you.
Kathleen
Yes, I agree. Well said!