Saturday, April 21, 2018 3rd Week of Easter 1st Reading: Acts 9:31-42 Gospel: John 6:60-69
Many of Jesus’ followers said, “This language is very hard! Who can accept it?”
Jesus was aware that his disciples were murmuring about this and so he said to them, “Does this offend you? Then how will you react when you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh cannot help. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. But among you there are some who do not believe.”
From the beginning, Jesus knew who would betray him. So he added, “As I have told you, no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”
After this many disciples withdrew and no longer followed him. Jesus asked the Twelve, “Will you also go away?” Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom we shall go? You have the words of eternal life. We now believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Jesus’ followers were scandalized when Jesus asked them to eat his body and drink his blood. In disgust they exclaimed, “This language is very hard! Who can accept it?” Many followers withdrew and no longer followed him (John 6:68). This did not deter Jesus. Notwithstanding the defections, he neither revised his offer. He insisted that without eating his flesh and drinking his blood, people couldn’t enjoy eternal life.
The few that remained with Jesus were not necessarily sold out to the idea. And we know where they were coming from. If getting in contact with blood was already considered unclean under Jewish laws, what could be said of drinking some? Many of those who stayed behind were probably on a wait-and-see mode. The most prudent thing Jesus could have employed was diplomacy. But he challenged them instead. He said, “You my disciples, will you also leave?” All these lead us to the one definite conclusion that Jesus was not using symbolic language when he said that he will raise up on the last day those who eat his flesh and drink his blood.
We do eat his flesh at the Holy Masses we attend. At each Mass bread and wine become Jesus’ body and blood respectively after the priest pronounces the words of consecration. Even as the accidents of the bread and wine remain unchanged and they still appear bread and wine to observers, their substances turn into the body and blood of Jesus in a process called transubstantiation. Those who cannot accept this teaching and are scandalized by the idea of eating flesh and drinking blood can also abandon Jesus. But with Peter we ask ourselves, “To whom shall they go to attain eternal life?” –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M
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