Do You Also Want to Leave?

Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b; Ephesians 5:21-32, 25-32; John 6:60-69


Jesus said “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” – and the Jews murmured among themselves saying “how can this be – isn’t this the carpenter’s son?”

Jesus 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.” – and many of His disciples who were listening said “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” – and they returned to their formal way of life and no longer followed Jesus.

Then Jesus said to His twelve disciples: “Do you also want to leave?”

I am certain that at that moment those 12 disciples didn’t understand any better what eating His body and drinking His blood meant – you see they hadn’t yet experienced the last supper or witnessed the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord or see Him ascend into Heaven – but Peter, speaking for the others, at that moment, professes faith in Jesus, Peter says: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

We aren’t called to understand all things – because we can’t with our tiny little human brains – there are mysteries of faith (like the Trinity, the Real Presence, and Mary the Mother of God) things that cannot be explained nor understood – and there are people who if they can’t explain something who will refuse to believe it – but we are called to have faith – to have faith in everything Jesus said and in everything that the Church teaches.

Both of these things – the mysteries of our faith and Church teachings are the things that cause people – like the disciples to today’s Gospel – to leave the Church today.

A new study published this year found that it was Church teaching on two issues – abortion and homosexuality – that where important reasons given for the majority of Catholics leaving the Church today.

There are many people today who want to simplify what we believe and our morality – to make it understandable, to make it less demanding and more in line with the larger pagan world that we live in.

We have all seen and experienced this - many couples today have decided that marriage comes after living together – not before living together – and they don’t want to hear the statistics showing the elevated percentage of failed marriages for those who cohabitate – but the Church teaches that marriage is a sacrament and that sex outside of marriage is a sin.

We live in a culture now that has been rightly called the culture of death – where birth control and abortion is common and generally acceptable and euthanasia threatens our seniors and the genetically impaired – people who place increased financial burdens on society. But the Church teaches the sanctity of all life – from the cradle to the grave.

The Church teaches against pornography, against homosexuality, against same-sex marriages, against the death penalty and these Church teachings are hard – and good Catholics ask “can’t we just tone down our faith and our morality” to be more in line with today’s culture?

Well Jesus answers that question for us today – and His response was simple: are you going to leave too? When some of His disciples walked away He did not stop them nor did He compromise the Truth just to keep them from leaving. He let them go.

Truth has nothing to do with understanding; it has nothing to do with numbers, the majority or popular opinion. Truth has nothing to do with surveys, legislation or elections. Truth is from Jesus Christ alone and it is what it is – unchangeable.

We see that in our first reading today, Joshua wasn’t concerned about whether the majority of the people of Israel would choose to live as the pagans do – he knew where he stood – “as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”

As Catholics we are called to follow Jesus and Church teaching – and more often than not – doing that today that will put us in direct conflict with our culture, with our family and with friends – but to whom shall we go – only Jesus has the words of eternal life.

So we must take every advantage of our Catholic faith – we must go to confession regularly, we must receive Holy Communion daily – we must allow God to work wonders in our lives by breaking down those barriers – sin and disbelief – that stand between us and Him.

No one, we are told in today’s Gospel, can come to Jesus unless it is granted by His Father – you and I are here today because we have been called to this supper – to be nourished on the Word of God and the body and blood of His Son Jesus Christ – to give us the strength to carry our crosses, to fight the good fight and to finish the race. We can’t do it alone – we need Jesus and we need each other. That is what Communion is all about.

By taking part in this Eucharist, we join ourselves to this one holy sacrifice of Christ. The Risen Lord Jesus comes to dwell personally within us, and so we share in his life and friendship. He gives himself completely and entirely to us, and we are called to give ourselves completely and entirely to him.

We are also lifted up into his heavenly Kingdom, and, in union with him, we are embraced by the Father in the love of the Holy Spirit as his redeemed sons and daughters. Receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, therefore, fortifies us against sin, which damages our relationship with God; heals us of our weaknesses; and
empowers us to live holy lives of sacrificial love for one another.

So when the going gets tough and life is hard – don’t return to your former way of living and stop following Jesus, don’t give in to popular opinion or peer pressure – each of us are called to be in the world but not of the world – turn to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament – He is waiting for us there – to give us the strength we need to carry on.