According to numerous surveys done since I was ordained, on any given Sunday, only 25 percent of American Catholics attend Mass. Some go every week, some go from time to time when it suits them, and others go only on select occasions such as Christmas and Easter. That means few Catholics celebrate the Eucharist regularly.
I am mindful of former parishioners who no longer attend Mass here. Why is that? I don’t know. Undoubtedly, their reasons are varied, but I suspect that more and more American Catholics seem to believe that they can have faith without religion. They believe in a God who leaves them alone and lets them live their individual lives without all kinds of institutional demands and restrictions. They believe God is in his heaven but has little influence on human affairs. The Ten Commandments is enough for ethical living. Their faith is internal and sufficient for salvation. They see no need for the Church or for common worship yet they believe that a loving God will someday save them.
Deep down, they still see themselves as being Catholic, even if they haven’t been to Mass in ages. They will call for a priest to come and give them the “last rites,” so that they can be ready to face God upon crossing the threshold of death to eternal life. In the mean time, they have chosen to forsake being fed the body and blood of Christ during this lifetime. Whatever their physical health may be, I am left wondering how spiritually malnourished their relationship with God is becoming since they choose not to be fed regularly by the Eucharist and the Word of God.
In today’s gospel, we learn that many disciples felt that what we have been hearing over the past few Sundays was just too much for them to accept so they returned to their former ways of life and no longer accompanied Jesus. In effect, that is what many Catholics are doing today as well.
Notice that Jesus didn’t try to stop those who abandon him by toning down his teachings. He didn’t change his message to placate them by saying, “Hold it, folks, I meant that the bread and wine symbolize my body and blood.” Instead, he just let them go. Jesus knew that not every one who heard him would follow him. Attributing their lack of faith in him to God’s will, he said, “I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”
Making the hard choice of commitment is the issue Joshua also puts to the people of Israel. He asks the elders who their God will be but first he tells them, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” The elders assure him that their choice is also the Lord. “We also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”
The readings today remind us that the Eucharist is a covenant meal that calls for a decision of faith on our part. In the Hebrew Testament, the word covenant often describes the relationship between God and his chosen people. Catholics have celebrated the Mass since the Last Supper as the ultimate expression of their covenant with God.
Many Catholics, however, have followed the footsteps of the disciples who left Jesus because they did not agree with some teaching of the Church. They have issues with the Church that are too much for them to endure: the sexual misconduct of a few priests, boring liturgies, or rigid authority as seen in its stance on abortion, artificial contraception, women’s ordination or same sex marriages. For others, the issue may well be that believing in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is too hard for them to “swallow.”
We know that faith seeks understanding but there is no guarantee that faith will always find the understanding it seeks. Today’s gospel invites us to put faith before and above understanding just as the Apostles did, not to put understanding before faith like the unfaithful disciples did.
The reaction of the unbelieving disciples contrasts sharply with that of the twelve apostles. Speaking to Jesus on their behalf, Peter noted, “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Are we convinced that Jesus is the Holy One of God? Two thousand years later, Jesus is drawing a line in the sand for us and inviting us to cross it and to come with him if we desire to experience eternal life.
In the Eucharist, we are called to make a decision and cross that line, to profess our faith in God’s Son and renew the covenant that was renewed by his life, death, and resurrection. Saying “Amen,” which means, “I believe,” before receiving the body and blood of Christ affirms that we are in communion with Christ and his Church.
Making the decision to follow Christ is no easier today than it was back then. Granted, alternatives facing us are often more appealing but do they give us eternal life? Do they deepen our relationship with God? Do they leave us spiritually healthy? Amid often conflicting claims about what it means to be Catholic today, we must hear Peter’s words to Jesus resounding through the centuries and affirm our faith, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”