Yesterday’s Daily Reading, from John 6;52-59, made the statement:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life,
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.
It’s not surprising that the statement tended to drive away many who had followed Him, which is precisely what today’s Reading, which begins at John, 6; 60, describes:
“Many of the disciples of Jesus 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 walked with 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.”
Preceding these passages, beginning with John, 6;52, Jesus says about the most bizarre thing ever said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”
It was, and is, not a surprise that many had, and have, a hard time believing Him, then, and now. Self-proclaimed “Christians” could go along with the miracles they’d seen, but when He told them that they could only live by eating His flesh and drinking His Blood, many simply could not believe that much.
Catholics Fundamentalists have no trouble believing that. We’ve been led to the conclusion that The Bible and The Roman Catholic Church are always right. If the Bible says that we are required to believe that we will have life within us if we “eat His Body and drink His Blood”, then we are forced to see if there is any way to do that.
We find that The Roman Catholic Church believes, and has believed from the beginning, that the Wine and Wafer in the Sacrament of Communion is literally, by the Miracle of Transubstantiation, transformed into His Blood and Body at the hands of Catholic priests in the Eucharist. So, we who are more completely Fundamentalists become, or stay, Roman Catholics.
What else can any believer, who truly wants to be “raised on the last day” do?
