Saturday in the Third Week of Easter, May 7, 2022

John 6, 60-69

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.”

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”  The Greek word translated here as “hard” also means “violent”, “harsh”, and “stern”.  This brings to mind a passage from the Song of Songs: “Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is stern as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing” (Song of Songs 8, 6-7).  Only one with an immense, unmeasurable love could offer his Flesh and Blood as food and drink.  This saying is hard — it reflects a “violent” love of Jesus Christ for souls: “I am come to cast fire on the earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12, 49), and, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Exodus 34, 14).  But this saying is “hard” or “violent” in what it demands in terms of faith.  In order to “accept this saying”, to fully believe it, we must do violence to ourselves.  We must believe that we are lovable, and that God loves us with an overwhelming love.  The Son of God, in giving us his Flesh and Blood, shows that there is nothing he will not do for us.  Our receiving his Body and Blood is our reciprocation, our assent that we will likewise do anything for him out of our love for him.

“Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?”  The Lord is saying to them: You believe that I am the Son of Man of whom Daniel the Prophet spoke, who was sent by the Father to save Israel and to lead the righteous into heaven.  How much harder is it for you to believe what I have just taught you?  “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.”  Many Protestants think that when the Lord says that his words are “Spirit” and life that he is admitting that he is speaking symbolically.  But if that were so, the people to whom he was speaking would not have left him.  No, the Lord is saying here that a person believes supernatural truths through the grace of God, not through mere human effort.  We receive this grace by asking for it: “I do believe, Lord. Help my unbelief” (Mark 9, 23).

“As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him.”  These we’re not casual disciples but one’s committed in such a way that they left their livelihoods and families to follow him.  They must have felt crushed, even betrayed.  But they also seem to have forgotten the miraculous works the Lord had performed in their sight, which ought to have led them, at the very least, to say, I do not understand what you are saying, but I believe in you and will continue to follow you.  This is essentially what Peter says: “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.”