26 August 2018
Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
All of Jesus’ talk of eating His flesh and drinking His blood was not sitting well with many of His followers. It’s understandable: they had never heard anything like it. As mentioned last week, the Law even forbid the consumption of blood: was He therefore telling them to break their sacred Law? Even if not, the whole notion of consuming Jesus’ flesh and blood was abhorrent, and no matter how they protested, He refused to explain Himself: He just kept going on and on. As Catholics, we believe what Jesus said, what the crowd could not accept: we listen to Him, whereas they could only hear. We believe, or try to believe, but they could not believe: their eyes were open, but their hearts were shut.
“Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
The words of Jesus are words of eternal life; these are the words they heard, but they could not listen to, could not allow to settle in their hearts and minds. The possibility that Jesus could both mean what He said, but not in the way they thought, did not cross their minds. They could not trust Him: of course Jesus would not ask something revolting of His followers! Yet they thought this was precisely what He meant. It seems St. Peter didn’t fully understand Jesus either but, when presented with the option to depart with the others, the Rock stood fast, in essence saying, “I don’t understand, but I trust you.” The crowd could only see with eyes of flesh; St. Peter, as he did in Matthew 16:16, confesses his belief that Jesus is more than merely a man. In that Gospel Jesus replies as He might have here, had John written further: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father” (Matthew 16:17).
Peter doesn’t understand, but he trusts and remains with Jesus. The crowd thinks they understand, they refuse to trust, and they depart. Peter listens; the crowd merely hears. Do we, then, listen to the words of Jesus when He speaks to us not only of the necessity of consuming His flesh and blood, but the tremendous gift of it: do we cherish this gift and treasure it in our hearts? As God gave manna to His people in the desert, God gives us His Son to nourish us in our earthly journey to the promised land of Heaven: do we live our Christian lives in such a way that we crave this gift? Jesus is, after all, the Word of God: just as we must be attentive to what He speaks, receiving His words into our hearts and minds, we must receive the Eucharist—Jesus, the Living Word of God!—with such attentiveness, almost as though it we an act of listening more than mere eating. “When I found your words, I devoured them; your words were my joy, the happiness of my heart…” (Jeremiah 15:16)
Let us reflect on our relationship to the Eucharist today: do we sit with Peter near Jesus, or do we stand with the crowd, or somewhere in between? Do we hear the words of Jesus or do we go a step further and truly listen, taking them to heart? “This is my beloved Son…” the Father thunders atop the mountain, “Listen to Him” (Matthew 17:5).