Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time-B
As we conclude the Sunday readings from the Gospel of St. John, a text that underscores the profound significance of the Eucharist, we observe a shift in Jesus’s manner. It’s widely acknowledged that the Gospel of John, penned later, presents a more elevated Christology than the Synoptics. This suggests that St. John, having had years to reflect on Jesus’s teachings, focused more on his divine nature than his human side. Phrases like “I am the Living Bread “serve as a prime example of this.
The conclusion of the Bread of Life encounters Jesus has with those present brings forth the human characteristics of Jesus, frustration, and sorrow. “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Those who could not accept the Eucharist’s reality returned to their past lives of darkness.
Not only will Jesus experience disbelief in his listeners, but he is also aware that there will be those who will betray him. This must have been difficult for Jesus to experience because he is offering his very life and how creatures can share in life through the Trinity. The rejection of love and, more importantly, the betrayal of love is difficult to accept, even for Jesus, who offers his very being to his people. His being made real through the Eucharist is sometimes too difficult for people to accept, perhaps because they have never really understood the dynamic of love. The dynamic is simple: the offering of yourself to another and the acceptance of their offering.
The climax of St. John’s narrative is the question Jesus poses to his twelve disciples and, by extension, all Christians, the pivotal question. “Do you also want to leave?” Peter, speaking on behalf of the group, answers, “Master, to who shall we go?” Peter, through his unwavering faith, is acutely aware that the only solution to humanity’s existential question is through Jesus, even though he could not fully comprehend the significance of the Eucharist. His faith in Jesus’s teachings gives us hope and reassurance in our own journey of understanding and commitment to the Eucharist.
St. Peter’s faithful response concludes: “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” Peter’s answer firmly implies that nothing remotely can afford eternal life. Only through Jesus can mortal beings have any hope of living after their earthly deaths.
Faith in Jesus demands we answer the question first posed to St. Peter with a deeper meaning. Unlike St. Peter, we have been privy to centuries of reflection and theology about the meaning of the Eucharist. We have been taught about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and how our reception of the sacrament allows us to commune with the eternal Godhead. Similar to the early disciples (outside of the twelve), those in the present age find “this saying is hard; who can accept it?” And like our early spiritual ancestors who doubted the Eucharist, they fell back into their previous lives, leaving the greatest gift they could receive without partaking in it.
Jesus is not asking for the impossible. All he asks you to believe is that he loves you and shows his love through his death on the cross, made visible in the gift of himself in the Eucharist until the end of time. When we believe he is present in the Eucharist, we proclaim that even in 2024, we are at the foot of the cross and outside the empty tomb. The effects of what happened two thousand years ago are made present again year after year through the gift of the Eucharist.
If you already believe Jesus has the words of eternal life, how difficult is it to trust that he can express the gift of eternal life through his glorified body to each generation? And he has through the Eucharist.