“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.” (Jn 6: 53). 

 

These are the words that St. John records were spoken by Jesus to the Jews at the synagogue in Capernaum. 

 

John goes on to tell us in his Gospel that many of the followers of Jesus were taken aback by His words. Those followers had been attracted to Jesus and the message that He was preaching:

 

The Kingdom. 

 

His Father’s house with many mansions. 

 

Blessed are the poor, the meek and so importantly the peacemakers. 

 

Likely, too was their attraction to Jesus’ message of moral living and prayer.

 

But now, suddenly, the message has become more complicated. Jesus tells them that His flesh is real food and His blood is real drink. And He will give that to His followers as a source of life in this world and especially in the next.

 

This is too much for many of those who had so eagerly followed Jesus. And John tells us, “As a result of this, many (of) His disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied Him.” (Jn 6:66).

 

Jesus then turns to the small group of His closest followers, the Apostles. He asks if they too wish to leave. There is no indication that the Apostles as yet fully understood the sacramental reality of Jesus’ words. Quite possibly, they were faced with the same impression of Jesus’s words as those who had left. 

 

Still, Simon Peter answered Jesus, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6: 68). In effect, he and the other disciples have chosen to put their faith in Jesus and in His words.

 

As we celebrate this Sunday the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of the Lord, we are reminded that believers in every generation face the very same test. Do we take Jesus at His word about the True Presence of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist? The question of whether we stay with Him in our Catholic faith or go away very often comes down to faith in the Eucharist.

 

Jesus sealed this message with His final meal with the Apostles. There He took bread and said “This is my body.” And He took the chalice of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Lk 22: 19-20).

 

Every time you and I come to Mass, we hear those words repeated again. The priest, in spite of all of his humanity, speaks those words at the command of Christ for our benefit and that of the whole world. And the bread, while maintaining its appearance becomes the Body of Christ, and the wine His Blood.

 

Even as we have fasted from the Eucharist and from personal participation at the Mass for the last several months, our faith in the True Presence of Jesus remains unaltered. He remains in the world not just in memory, but in the reality of the Eucharist that is outside of our human control or willing it to be.

 

Our celebration of Corpus Christi aligns us with Peter and the Apostles. It is in our act of faith that the Catholic Church continues the sacramental reality of Jesus’s presence in the Eucharist and at Mass.

 

Indeed, Master, to whom shall we go? You are already here among us. 

 

What a great gift the Eucharist is.