It does not pay to quarrel with God.

Today’s Reading, from the Book of John, is one of the most important passages in all The Bible. It must be read in light of other passages regarding the separation of wheat from weeds, sheep from goats, and some being called to Heaven while others remain on earth.

When we read it carefully, it is obvious that Jesus is speaking very plainly and very directly. His Words are very plain. They are very direct. Do we find ourselves among those who “quarrel” with them? In His day and age, they were identified as “Jews”. Today, those who “quarrel” with His Words include both Jews and Protestants.

Should we find ourselves among those who “quarrel” with His Words, we should move quickly toward those who believe and live their life more fully in the obedience implied by that belief. It does not pay to quarrel with God.

If we are able to read, believe, and take whatever steps are necessary to do as He instructs, and spend our lives in that belief and obedience, we have advantages at Judgment.

John, 6:52-59

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,

and I will raise him on the last day.
For my Flesh is true food,
and my Blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Go back to the first line: “The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'” That same quarrel continues. Roman Catholics believe that their priests, in The Church founded when Jesus said, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock I build My Church.”, have the authority, through the Sacrament of Ordination, to change wine and wafer into the Very Blood and Body of Christ.

Those who are not in The Roman Catholic Church “quarrel” with that concept of Transubstantiation, even though it is elucidated perfectly in lines that follow: “Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood remains in me and I in Him.”

In that passage, He makes it even clearer that eating His Body and drinking His Blood is vitally important to our chances of salvation. It does not pay to quarrel with God.

Today, those who “quarrel” include not only Jews, but also, those Protestants who insist that the passage be taken “symbolically” or “historically” or in some sort of “context” that makes them only symbolic, never literal.

It is not wise to be found among those who “quarrel” in any way, shape, or form with His words when we go to Judgment. We all have enough sins without adding “quarreling with God” onto them.

Catholic Fundamentalism suggests: Our odds of getting into Heaven increase with belief and obedience. A 1% improvement in our odds is worth becoming an obedient Catholic. Why wait?

John, 6:52-59

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