August 25, 2024, 12:00 PM

Today’s Mass readings conclude our 5-week meditation on the Gospel of John, Chapter 6, the Bread of Life Discourse, the Eucharist. Today Jesus asks the Twelve Apostles to make a choice, either to believe and accept the New Covenant He offers in His Body and Blood or to live their lives without Him. Joshua prefigures this choice in the First Reading when he gathers the Twelve Tribes at Shechem, where God first appeared to their father Abraham, and challenges them to renew their covenant with God or serve the pagan gods. We too are being asked to decide whom we will serve. For 5 Sundays now the Church has presented us with the mystery of the Eucharist. Jesus has told us that unless we eat His Flesh and drink His Blood, we will have no life in us. It is a hard saying, as many murmur in the Gospel. Yet He has given us the words of eternal life. We must believe, as Peter says, that Jesus is the Holy One of God, who handed Himself over for us, who gave His flesh for the life of the world. Through the Eucharist, He nourishes us and makes us His own flesh and blood. If we truly desire eternal life in Heaven, we must follow Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. His Way is to believe His Truth, that we must eat His Flesh and drink His Blood or go to eternal life without Him. As soon as we do, it’s on to the Year of Mission in the Eucharistic Revival. Now you know!