“What saying is hard?” You might be wondering. We missed hearing the preceding passage from John’s gospel due to the feast of the Assumption last Sunday. Jesus told his listeners in his most challenging sermon, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him on the last day.” Imagine yourself in that audience. Eat his flesh? Drink his blood? Both notions were so abhorrent, that many of his disciples, no longer convinced that he was the holy one of God, returned to their former ways of life. They didn’t hang around to better understand his message.
After they left, Jesus turned to the apostles and asked, “Do you also want to leave?” That question is one that every generation of believers has faced sooner or later. Imagine Jesus asking you that question. Some in fact have done just that. They left the parish, offended by a certain homily or certain parishioner or boring liturgies. Some even left the Church. I suspect most of us know someone, even family members, who have left the faith. Some did so loudly and publicly while others have departed quietly, slipping away like a thief in the night.
Some left because they found Jesus’ message too hard to accept so they parted company with him. Some liked Jesus but couldn’t stand his Church or her leaders or the manner in which their personal views were being challenged or at odds with certain Church teachings, such as abortion, marriage, or contraception. Whatever their reason may be, they left the Church, choosing to walk away from the Eucharist.
Their conduct was nothing new. From the day Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, many people have opted not to serve the Lord but to fashion their own god that suited their taste. Those listening to Joshua, however, as they were about to enter the Promised Land, told him, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord for the service of other gods. For it was the Lord, our God, who brought us out of the Land of Egypt, out of the state of slavery.” They had tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord and opted to serve the Lord.
Centuries later, the disciples who heard Jesus were at a crossroad. He challenged them to examine what they believed to be right and what he was now conveying. His language about the Eucharist was alien and repulsive. Eat his flesh? Drink his blood? His message was foreign to their way of thinking. While you might like your steak bloody rare, a Jew would never touch blood, thus they could not accept what Jesus was saying. They could not grasp that he was offering them eternal life. When they walked away, Jesus didn’t try to stop them by toning down or altering his teaching; he just let them go.
But there are others, such as ourselves, who have responded to Jesus’ question with Peter’s words, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” For all its limitations and shortcomings, this is the Church where we have touched God and God has touched us.
When he was a professor, Pope Benedict wrote an essay entitled, “Why I am still in the Church.” We do not belong to the church because it is perfect, or because it has all the answers, or because it is always comforting to belong to it, but because, despite its many flaws, we find in it something which is crucial and indispensible. Remaining in the church, then, is a challenge: to be faithful to that truth which is its essence, while transcending its limitations and faults.
A good example presents itself in today’s second reading. In his often-misunderstood passage to the Ephesians, Paul is challenging husbands and wives to examine their fidelity and commitment to one another. Both spouses need to serve one another and strive to put the other person first. That was a revolutionary idea then and still is for some people today.
Commitment and fidelity is the theme running throughout these readings. A fitting question for us to ponder would be how committed are we to the Lord and his gospel message? To eat his body and drink his blood means taking on the life of Jesus. Are we willing to then show loving care and respect to one another? if so, there can be no room in our hearts for bigotry or racism. Those reluctant to hear Jesus’ command have replaced him with a god of their own design.
Remaining in the church is a decision that cannot be taken for granted. Each of us must ask ourselves, just as Pope Benedict did, “Why am I still in the church?” We are motivated to belong to this Church despite its shortcomings because of all that it has to offer.
Alas, some people see that the values of the gospel are not in accord with their preferred lifestyle so they leave the Church. If we do not find his life and message challenging, perhaps we have not really heard what he is asking of us. How willing are to better understand our faith if we are tempted to walk away?
If we choose to belong to a faith community that strives imperfectly to fulfill Jesus’ demanding selfless mission of universal love, it can only be because we see that we really have nowhere else to go; after all, who else offers us the gift of eternal life? Despite the challenges of the cross and the scandal of the human church, we are convinced as was Peter that here and only here do we find the words of eternal life. Blessed are they who are led by Jesus’ words to abundant and eternal life!