John 6:60-69

Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b

Psalm 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21

Ephesians 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32

John 6:60-69

Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said,

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,

he said to them, “Does this shock you?

What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending

to where he was before?

It is the spirit that gives life,

while the flesh is of no avail.

The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.

But there are some of you who do not believe.”

Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe

and the one who would betray him.

And he said,

“For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me

unless it is granted him by my Father.”

As a result of this,

many of his disciples returned to their former way of life

and no longer accompanied him.

Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”

Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

We have come to believe

and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, your Spirit gives true life and your Son speaks the words of eternal life. I believe that you have sent your Son and pour out your Spirit. I do not want to return to my former way of life. I have left behind my old self and put on new life in your Son and Spirit.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Words are Spirit and Life: In his Bread of Life discourse, Jesus insisted three times that the people eat his flesh and drink his blood. The response of the crowds to this is understandable. They said: “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Like the people of Israel in the desert, who murmured against Moses, the crowds that followed Jesus into the deserted place began to murmur against Jesus. Some of the people began to harden their hearts and refused to believe. John tells us that many of Jesus’ disciples did not accept his teaching on the mystery of the Eucharist and stopped following him. When Jesus confronted Peter and the other Apostles about his teaching and whether or not they would leave him, Peter made his confession of faith. In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Here, in the Gospel of John, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Holy One of God and that Jesus has the words of eternal life.

2. The Words of Everlasting Life: The primary reason why Jesus lost many of his disciples is found in his statements about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Certainly, Jesus’ disciples asked themselves questions like how Jesus could give them his flesh for food. “Jesus’ Eucharistic teaching was not like the allegorical Parable of the Sower, where the disciples just needed some explaining. His shocking words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood called for supernatural faith. That is what Jesus meant when he said to those who didn’t believe him: ‘No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father’ (John 6:65)” (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, 107). Jesus gave his disciples two keys to understand his words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. The first key is that Jesus is divine: You cannot understand how Jesus, as the Son of Man, can give his body and blood as food and drink, unless you believe and understand that he, as the Son of Man, has divine power: “It is only through the mystery of Jesus’ divine identity and divine power that he will be able to give his disciples his body and blood under the form of ‘real food’ and ‘real drink’ (John 6:55)” (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, 111). The second key is the mystery of Jesus’ resurrection: Jesus invites his disciples to eat the living flesh of his resurrected body. He indicates that he will be raised up to “life” by the power of the Spirit and then taken up to heaven in the Ascension (see Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, 111). Through the Resurrection and Ascension, the body of Jesus is no longer bound by space and time. He can appear when and where he wills and under whatever form he wills. Ultimately, those who left Jesus after this teaching did not understand that he wanted to give them his resurrected body and blood, miraculously present under the veil of bread and wine (see Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, 114).

3. Christ Loves His Bride, the Church: In Paul’s teaching on marriage in the Second Reading, it is important to hear the first line: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.” To be subordinate means “to defer to.” This deference is not one-sided. It is mutual. As well, it is grounded in a loving deference and reverence toward God. Just as we serve God, we need to serve one another. In this context, in his exhortation to wives, Paul acknowledges a type of leadership of the husband in a marriage, but goes on to purify and redefine what it means to exercise this in marriage and family: “This role demands of the husband, says St. Paul, that he be conformed to Christ, who loved his Bride, the Church, even to the point of death” (Bergsma, Word of the Lord: Year B, 365). Leadership in the Church and in a family must never be abusive or self-serving, it must be self-sacrificial. In his exhortation to husbands, Paul exhorts them to love their wives and the model is Christ’s love for the Church. The word for love is “agape.” This means that husbands need to prize, cherish, and care for their wives. They need to be affectionate toward them and seek their true good (see Williamson, Ephesians, 165).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have the words of everlasting life. The world does not have these words and yet I am tempted to listen to the noise of the world. The devil does not have these words and yet I am tempted to listen to him. Help me to hear you in the silence of my heart.

Living the Word of God: When I read the words of Paul today, do I think he is chauvinistic and out of touch culturally or am I open to the deep revealed truth about the relationship between a husband and a wife in holy matrimony? How have I been subordinate to my spouse? How have we been mutually subordinate to one another? What happens when we have been selfish? How can I love my spouse more deeply and intimately?