“When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”” John 6:60-69
So many Protestants look at the Bread of Life discourse in John 6 and settle it as not the Eucharist by grasping to the words of v. 63 – “ It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless.” Why would followers, disciples who heard these words of Jesus, saying one must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood or have no life, run away from Jesus back to their formal lives if after all He said, they believed it was all metaphorical?
Jesus said multiple times that “I Am the Bread of Life”, and you must eat His Body and drink His blood to have life. Yet, there are still many who don’t believe in the Eucharist, that Jesus was literally speaking in Eucharistic terms that you must eat His Body.
I sure hope that when you listen to these words of the Lord, you truly believe and come to understand the truth and later, in the last supper, proof of the Eucharist being the full Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – God. That when 80% or more of Christian followers run away from this fact, you answer as did Peter, “Lord, to whom can we go?”
The Eucharist IS the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, hidden in the form of bread and wine. That every time you receive this at Mass, you bring the fullness of Jesus into yourself. That you know this ‘meal’ is a must for eternity. That you desire the Eucharist more than anything else in all the world.
When the world runs from this teaching, because it is too difficult or simply to protest the Catholic Church, that you stay and hold tight to the Eucharist changes us from the inside out. I believe the Eucharist leaves an indelible mark within us and our desire for this feast is a joy in heaven.
Be a hero, run to the Eucharist when others runs away.