Where to go?

John 6:56-69

Today I will share the Gospel with 3-8 year olds. How does one explain the deep meaning of Jesus' preaching in a synagogue, saying very strange things which sound like cannibalism? It is beyond the grasp of adults, how much more the concrete, simple minds of the young. It was certainly offensive to Jewish ears, even more than it offends our own. Jews had a law not to eat blood. The words "eat my flesh" and "drink my blood" are such graphic images that baffled and confused both Jesus' friends and foes.

The reaction of some followers, paraphrasing here--"This is rough stuff," they say, "too hard to handle!"--caused them to leave Him. Jesus asks too much. Is it any different today, when often times, we are tempted to tone Jesus down, to manage Him by softening His message and conforming it to our views--theologically, politically, socially.... Yes, we call Him a great teacher, a wise man who preaches love and acceptance, but always garbed in robes which do not offend our sensibilities and keep Him under our control. Yet here, baffling our expectations, He confronts the discomfort of His listeners by upping the ante. "You think this is hard, what about me returning to the Father in heaven?"

Jesus is so much more than a teacher or rabbi, so much more than a healer of bodies and forgiver of sins. At the heart of His message today is the idea that communion with Him (eating and drinking) is abiding in Him. To abide, literally to stay in or live in, in Jesus is to share in His life. If our image of heaven is a place where we go to enjoy the after-life, it is possible to see eucharist and communion as tools to achieve eternal bliss, boxes to be checked off. We do this in memory of Him to assure our place--whether we take the eating/drinking literally (catholic) or not (protestant). Perhaps there is more to it. In John 1:36 when the first disciples come to Him, they ask Jesus, "where do you abide?" Five chapters later we read one of the answers, Jesus says, "I abide in those who eat my flesh and drink my blood."

This is theosis. I was recently asked by a young child, "What does you are what you eat mean?" In eucharistic terms it means we eat Jesus and we become Jesus. Our bodies become temples of His presence. The incarnation extends to our very person and we become one with God--divinized. The nine paths of sin provide insight into how we are particularly inclined to see the world and twist things to meet our fears, needs, and desires. Unity with Jesus--His abiding presence within and through us--saves us from our own efforts to be "good" (or helpful, successful, special, knowledgeable, peaceful, strong, right, etc.--we each have our particular favorite). It's not simply a legal fiction where God says "innocent" because Jesus took our sins upon Him (although that is an angle). The words of Jesus today remind us that the Father sees Jesus when He looks at us because we are, in fact, one with Jesus. We are Him and He is us. Food really becomes us when we eat and digest, just so spiritual food becomes us as well.

Jesus uses other analogies, Lord/servant, Husband/wife, Father/child, Vine/branch, Shepherd/sheep. All shed light on a mystery, a mystery too deep for adult minds, but hopefully one which resonates with a child's heart.

If Jesus is "too much," and He is in a sense, then we must answer His question: "will you leave Me, too?" Worldly wise are leaving in large numbers. Jesus has been rejected by most--whether overtly (in unbelief) or covertly (in wrong believing and unconverted minds and hearts; perhaps my own?). In the end, Peter speaks for us all. "Where would we go? You have the words of eternal life."

Some, those afflicted with acedia, despair of the enterprise. Jesus requires too much, so they embrace agnostic or atheistic rejection of His demands. Some, afflicted with hubris and self-deceit, construct a religious bulwark (and sometimes cleverly declare it 'not religion') adopting a creed and practice which provides surety and comfort in the face of life's travails. Some, Jesus says "few," eat Him and drink Him, these are in the process of becoming Him.

Where do you go for the words of eternal life? Are you aware of the foolish voices within? the idolatrous constructs which you have embraced? The false self which encompasses your heart keeping Jesus at bay? Will you be brave and trust Him, doing the work of the journey?

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, I will abide in him, and he will live forever....