Jesus is the Holy One God and we Believe and are Convinced.

08-22-2021Weekly ReflectionFr. Anthony Okolo, C.S.Sp

Today’s Gospel reading concludes the discourse on the bread of life we have been reading for the past four weeks now .The central argument John sets out in his gospel was to prove to his audience that Jesus is the Holy One of God. He is the anointed Messiah who came down from heaven. He is the Bread of Life, the Light of the world and the Good Shepherd. This is evident in the response of Peter to Jesus when he asked the twelve “Do you also want to leave” and Peter answered, “ 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.” Peter’s answer seals the murmurings, and quarrelling among the disciples on how this Man can give us his flesh to eat. Peter has always been inspired by the Holy Spirit to reveal the true identity of Jesus at a very critical moment and this is what he has demonstrated again by this response to Jesus’ question that Jesus has the key to eternal life and there is no other place to go than to Jesus.

However, before Peter’s response many of the followers of Jesus had left following Him because He said, “I am the bread of life that came down from heaven.” They said this saying is hard; who can accept it. Thus, they could not comprehend how this itinerant preacher could give them His body to eat, they find it hard to understand how Jesus whose parents they know very well could claim that He came down from heaven. They could not understand how this nomad preacher could claim to come from God. As a result of the difficulties to come to terms with all these in their human mind, they left Jesus for their own business. In the same way, in our Christian journey, there are times when we find it hard to reconcile our faith with the happenings around us, we abandon Jesus. Some other times many people have left the Catholic faith to go to other churches because they could not understand the mystery of the Eucharist where Jesus is present in the form of bread and wine. There are those who leave the church because they find it hard to understand the church’s teachings in some issues and they just leave the church. Today we are called to respond like Peter who said to Jesus “to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God”.

Similarly in the first reading Joshua challenges the people that they have to decide for themselves which way they are to follow. To serve the living God or to serve the God of Baal whom their ancestors served. Just like Peter in the Gospel, Joshua clearly told them, “as for me and my family we have decided to follow the living God”. If they are to follow the living God, they have to allow God to enter into their lives to penetrate into every aspect of their being. That is what it means to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and to drink His blood. It demands total commitment and total resignation which can only come about if one enters into the life of Christ and allows Christ directly into his or her affairs. It demands a total resignation and surrender of our life to Jesus who is the Holy One of God.

May you and your families receive the blessing of Jesus who is the Bread of Life

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