The reading today, the ending of St. John's 6th chapter, easily follows Friday's posting. The disciples, like the Jewish people who quarreled over Jesus' words "When you eat my Flesh and drink my Blood", said to Jesus "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" And Jesus replied, "Does this shock you?"
This dialog and the remainder of the verses make it clear that to say "I believe" is not an easy reality. It is difficult to believe because we are dealing with mystery. If we could clearly understand an unknown reality that is truly a mystery, it would no longer be that once we could understand it!
Do you think you might have a hard time with these words of Jesus -- in the Eucharist you eat the Body and drink the Blood of Jesus? Listen to what St. John also wrote: "As a result of this (his talk on the Eucharist) many of his disciples packed up their belongings and went back to "their former way of life and no longer walked with him."
So it is not an easy profession, this profession of faith that we repeat each time we say the Creed. It is a struggle for so many even today ... and perhaps even more so today because we have so many technological ways of living in the world that make mysteries no longer mysteries!
Like Peter who told Jesus that if they did not have him, to whom were they to go. Furthermore, he said to Jesus, "We have come to believe." It is a process. It is your journey of faith.
Easter Candle at St. Jane de Chantal Parish, Bethesda, MD
