Gospel of Saint John

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If I said I went to New York on September 11, I think you all understand I'm saying more than just a date.

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Now imagine that statement being looked at by an anthropologist two thousand years from now, speaking a completely different language, trying to understand why I said September 11.

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That's what we're dealing with.

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So Sea of Galilee, Sea Tiberius. Why the dual name?

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Well Galilee represents the inheritance of Israel.

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That is the Judah of Israel.

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Tiberius is the Roman Empire, the Gentiles.

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So that immediately gives you a clue. The tonality of the whole chapter is given. Both.

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Don't focus only on Israel, you have to focus on the Gentiles.

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As soon as he says that, you have to have in your mind the duality of Israel on one hand, the Gentiles on the other.

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Multitude followed him. A multitude followed him.

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What is the pattern that St. John is employing right now from the Old Testament? What does he have in mind when he's writing this?

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Who else had the sort of a dual situation?

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Was among the Gentiles and then he had to pull Israel out of the Gentiles and he was followed by a multitude because of the signs that he made. Can you name somebody?

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There you go.

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Now you have the back pattern where he's going with.

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But here's the fascinating thing. I'm going to point it out and I'll point it out again.

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It's reversed.

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Moses took Israel out of the land of the Gentiles, Egypt.

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Our Lord is going from Israel crossing to the other side, the land of the Gentiles.

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So now the multitudes are following him into the land of the Gentiles.

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You can see how he's undoing that separation that existed between Israel and the rest of the nations.

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I said that before, I'll repeat it again. Israel was chosen, they're the chosen people, but they're chosen for something.

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They're not chosen to be placed on a pedestal.

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They're chosen for a mission. Why? Because Israel was the first born.

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Geniologically, when you follow the genealogy on the good side, you hit Eber, who is the father of all Hebrews, sixth generation down, you're going to hit Abraham.

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And then as you follow the line, you get to Jacob.

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They're the first born and their mission is to lead all the other brethren back to the Lord.

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They failed over and over and over and over again. And their failure isn't because of them, it is because of the lack of grace.

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The failure was meant to show us universally, all of us humans, our one family, deeply affected by the wound of original sin, separated from grace, we cannot do what we need to do.

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And here's the source of all grace has come. And now as the first born, he's going back to the land of Gentiles to do what was supposed to be done all the way back from Adam and Eve.

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So when you see these words, if you had the Bible sort of in your head, you would go,

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"Now you have Moses in your head as the back pattern and let's see what happens.

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Now, they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased." Here's the irony.

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What were the signs that Moses showed?

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Were there signs of blessings or signs of curses? What's the place? What's the place?

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Curses.

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The signs here are blessings.

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You see how it's inverted?

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They saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased. Now, Jesus went up into the hills, Moses went up into the mountain.

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The parallelism still sticks and they're set down as disciples. The disciples are those who follow him.

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We would be considered disciples.

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The apostles are the hierarchy of the church.

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Don't confuse those two.

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So the disciples include the apostles, but the apostles do not include the disciples. Okay. Moses went up on the mountain and was separated from the rest of Israel.

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Israel, to feed themselves, what did they do? The golden calf.

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Jesus goes up in the mountain, brings everyone with him, and what's he going to do?

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Feed them. See the full inversion going on between Moses and Jesus? How he's taking it over and re-giving it its proper shape?

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This is why St. John's writing these seemingly innocuous little details.

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So now, Jesus is no longer a Jewish local hero.

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He is the word through which all things were made and will be made anew.

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So the setting. Here is where he was. He was on the side of Capernaum. So you see this is Galilee on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. And then here is the capitalist, which I showed you last time, and that is the land of the Gentiles.

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Jesus crosses from Capernaum all the way to this side and goes up on the hill. Now here you're on the Golden Heights and there are steep mountains.

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And that's where he goes.

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So on the western shore, it's a Jewish covenantal heritage. On the eastern shore, it's Gentile pagan, the capitalist. The prominent cities are Capernaum, Magdala, Tiberius, Roman headquarters. On the other side, it's Bethsaida, Gerasa, and Curcy. You don't hear about Gerasa and Curcy much because they're all essentially pagan cities.

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The elevation on the western shore is gently sloping hills, fertile plains. On the other side, steep, dramatic golden heights.

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So Jesus is going from the house of Israel to the chaos of the nations. And we're going to see it with the sea again.

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And I've showed you this inversion. In the old Exodus, the Passover, oh yeah, one little detail I forgot to mention right here. The Passover was at hand, which means it wasn't yet celebrated. So this is happening before the Passover.

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In the case of Moses, the Passover happened first.

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Then the people cross into the wilderness with the sea.

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And then the testing happens. They're tested in the desert.

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And then Moses receives the word of God on the mountain.

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In the new Exodus, the people follow Jesus into the wilderness. Jesus ascends the mountain with all his disciples. Philip and the disciples are tested. And the sign of the bread is given.

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The Passover is going to happen after, not before.

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Why? Why is it doing this way? Because unlike the Passover of the old covenant, you must follow Jesus first. You must be tested. You must be purified before you get to Holy Communion.

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It's the ecclesiastical structure of the sacraments that is given in this inversion.

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So I'll remind all of you,

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the Mass and Communion as a sacrament does not forgive mortal sins.

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Reason is really simple. It's actually pretty evident when I put it in the following terms.

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If you are invited to a wedding, which a Mass is, Mass is the wedding feast of the Lamb, that's what it's called. If you go to the wedding and you're in the hall with everyone else,

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that is not the right time for you to take a shower.

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That's not the right place.

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People expect you to come there already showered and properly dressed. So the ballroom is not set up for you to clean yourself. It is set up to receive you once you're cleaned.

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Same thing with the Mass.

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Not set up for you to clean your souls with the Eucharist.

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Now, holy water, the sign of the cross, forgive venial sins.

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If you ask for them, it's the mortal bit that can be forgiven. Why? Back to my example. You walk into the ballroom, you're properly dressed, your hands are dirty.

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Yeah, you can go wash them.

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So always remember that about the liturgy, about Mass. Okay.

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Now, in the New Covenant, the order suggests a deeper requirement for the weak party for us. We come to the Eucharist, which is the new manna, after we have followed the word and been tested or purified.

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This mirrors the church's teaching on the state of grace. One must be cleansed before partaking in the holy banquet.

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I'll tell you one more thing about the sacrament of confession. Hopefully, if you haven't been to confession in a while, you might then consider going to confession. In the book of Isaiah, our Lord says that when He forgives the sins of people, He will no longer remember them.

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So, you know, at the end, there'll be two judgments, your personal judgment when you die, that is immediate, when you receive your personal judgment, heaven, hell or purgatory.

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And then the final judgment, where everybody is raised, and then you will hear the state and the sins of all the people around you.

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It derives from justice.

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So, if you don't like your dirty laundry to be aired to everybody, go to confession, because God will forget about them.

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Multiplication of the Loaves.

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Lifting up His eyes then and seeing that multitude was coming to Him, Jesus had to fill it. How are we to buy bread so that these people may eat? This He said to test Him.

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Let me repeat that. This He said to test Him.

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We're all in Philip's shoes.

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Christ might come to you to test you.

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I know this is not the usual image you have of Christ,

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especially if you're used to the image of Christ carrying a lamb on His shoulders.

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It doesn't really jive with this, does it now?

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So, we don't think that He's going to come and test us because, hey, this is, that's what happened then.

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This is written for our instruction. So, this He said to test Him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him. To Hunter Denari He would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little. One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, "There's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but who are they among the many?" Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now, there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down in number about 5,000. Jesus then took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated, so also the fish as much as they wanted.

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When they had eaten their fill, He told His disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over that nothing may be lost." So, they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign which He had done, they said, "This is indeed the prophet who has come into the world." Perceiving then, they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him King, Jesus withdrew again to the hills by Himself. All right.

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200 denarii, that's basically the limit of the old economy. A denarius was a day's wage for labor. So, 200 is essentially paying a labor for 200 days, and it represents eight months of salary. Philip isn't just saying they are short on cash. He's expressing the mathematical impossibility of the weak party's resource, and the covenant God often allows us to reach the end of our denarii, our human effort, so that when the miracle happens, there is no doubt that the strong party has provided it. It highlights the gap between human buying and divine giving.

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That's the test for all of us.

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Jesus is going to push you to the end of your limit.

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Why?

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Why does He do that?

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One, well, obviously, if somebody, a human person, is doing that to you, you might be really upset with them.

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But let's flip the context a little bit, and many of us don't really understand the context because we've never done that, but try to. Try to imagine you have decided to become a Marine, and you're going to boot camp.

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What do they do in boot camp?

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They get you to sit down, right, and they give you a teddy bear, and then they play soothing music,

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and everybody holds hands and sings kumbaya, right?

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So, they push you to your absolute breaking point.

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That is the image you should have of the faith.

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This is spiritual combat.

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This is ongoing war till the day you die.

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Unfortunately, the message you've been receiving more and more is what I called "Komfikushin Catholic."

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Sit down, say a prayer, go to Mass, and God will take care of the rest.

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The problem is original sin.

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Original sin lurks in each and every one of us and does everything it can to fight God.

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Everything it can to fight God.

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We think about everything you focused on this week. Think about where your mind was, what you were concerned with, where you were focused. And I am not, by the way, I am not using that to tell you you shouldn't be thinking about your job, about your kids, about your guy. Not at all. You have to. You must.

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You understand?

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What I'm trying to get at isn't that of the fact you've been focusing on something else than God is bad. Not at all. Jesus himself does that. He focuses on lots of stuff that have nothing to do with the Father. Here's the difference. Here's the distinction. Here is the key point.

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With everything he does, he's always in conversation with his Father.

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Every moment, every opportunity, every person is in conversation with the Father.

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That's not what we do. Most of the time, it's a conversation with ourselves. With our future self. Most of the time we're obsessed with where we want to be. We don't live in the present. We're living in the imaginary future.

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I'm going to do this so I can get that. I'm going to do this. We're painting a picture of how my life should be and we're working diligently to achieve that picture. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to do this. We're painting a picture of how my life should be and we're working diligently to achieve that picture.

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In principle, there's nothing wrong with that. You can achieve great good in doing this. For you, your children, your grandchildren, your friends, your community. That's wonderful.

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The problem is when you push God out. Anxiety is very good at this. Anxiety is a very good fruit of concupiscence to push God out.

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So why does God push us so he can break us and we can go, "I need God. I just can't do it. I can't do it."

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I need God in my life.

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It's interesting. I went to Costco not too long ago for examining my eyes and I was saying my rosary. I got in my car, got out, kept saying my rosary, walking Costco and saying my rosary. Walked into the optometrist, saying my rosary, waiting in my line. This guy turns around, looks at me and says, "You're saying a rosary?" He said, "Yes." I'm saying my rosary. He says, "Oh, you say rosary every day?" I say, "Yeah, I do that." I say rosary every day. Showed my rosary. I have a very sturdy rosary. It's very powerful built by a guy in a garage. I love this rosary. I'm still talking about it. This woman sitting behind us then joins the conversation and tells us, "I am a cancer survivor.

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I've been saying my rosary every day for 20 years."

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So I said to her, "Thank you. Pray for us." She said, "Oh, yes, men."

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I thought, "Okay, I wasn't expecting that, but hey, why not?" Here's the point.

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Cancer made her say her rosary every day.

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That's the test. That's why God breaks us.

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Because our mind and our heart are somewhere else.

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Their mind and our heart are elsewhere. Watch this. They want to take him king by force.

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Why? Because they want him to come and take care of all the mess they're living in. Their mess is our mess. We live in a messy world. We have mess in the church, in our families, people around us. We have mess all over the place. And what do we do? We focus on the mess. We think we're going to fix the mess. We think God will fix the mess.

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Never promised to fix the mess. Never said he will.

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He uses the mess to fix us. But we don't think we need fixing. We think the mess needs to be fixed.

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And you noticed how here, especially in the States, there's this very interesting phenomenon where people keep talking about the end of the world.

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Like any time something happens, it's the end of the world. They want the mess fixed.

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The Christians in the Middle East don't talk about the end of the world. Right now in Lebanon, the Christians are being bombed.

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If you talk to them, none of them will tell you it's the end of the world. Let's say it's business as usual.

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We've been at it since 2000 years.

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This obsession with fixing the mess takes you away from your personal relationship with Christ. So if you are too focused on social media, the news, your job, or anything else, if you're way too focused on this, please take notice and realize it's pulling you away. And so if it's pulling you away, because you live under the covenant, there is no escape.

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If it's pulling you away, God will visit you with curses.

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He will break you.

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So you break and say, "Well, I can't do it. I need God."

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And hopefully you come back to Him lovingly and trustworthy. And guess what you're going to do three months later?

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But that's okay. He knows that. That's okay. Start to understand that pattern. That's what we are dealing with, all of us.

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There isn't one of us who can escape this.

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We want to make Jesus king by force.

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We want Him to come right now and fix all of this mess.

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And in the process, we don't care to really love Him and be vulnerable like He was, and accept that there is the cross, there is death, and after that there is resurrection.

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Okay, so the desert. Just as Israel was tested in the wilderness, next to chapter 16, the disciples are tested here.

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The poverty of the weak party. Philip looks at his wallet. He has the king. The irony is staggering.

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He has the creator of the world. Right next to him, he's busy with his wallet.

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We are Philip. So many times. So many occasions.

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It's a hard reality because we're not focusing on him.

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In the covenant, we bring our nothingness, or our meager five loaves, and the strong party elevates it into an abundance that feeds the world.

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So, you can do a lot.

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If you would dare to do something for God.

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If you go to the restaurant, I hope you do the sign of the cross before you eat.

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That's your meager five loaves. You're not standing up on a podium converting the world, you're just doing a little thing. God can take that and convert people with it without you noticing.

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You say the rose, we say it every day.

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There's a nun who appeared to another nun after she passed, and she said, "I would give everything I could to come back to this world and say one more distracted Hail Mary."

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Because she knew the worth of one Hail Mary, even distracted in heaven.

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The mountain overlooks the sea, reclaiming the land of Israel while eyeing the sea of the Gentiles. So up on the mountain, he can see Galilee, but he can also see the Mediterranean Sea.

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Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.

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They had as much as they wanted.

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So the Eucharistic language, notice the Eucharistic language, I think you picked up on it. St. John uses the word Eucharistesas, given thanks.

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So this is not just a meal, it's a liturgical act. The same word used when he actually instituted the Eucharist.

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But it's still not the bread of life.

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As the strong party, Jesus is not merely provide enough, he provides an abundance that satisfies every hunger. He goes overboard. He's generous.

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And in Jewish tradition, five often represents the Torah, the Pentateuch.

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So Jesus takes the meager five loaves, the Torah, that Israel couldn't even live appropriately, and then he is the one who can distribute it over.

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So you can see how he takes and completes.

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Perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

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The people's error, they want a bread king, one who offers their physical, political and worldly desires.

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We want the same thing. We look at the world, we see all the problems, we see the evil people, we see things breaking down, we see scandals, and then what do we do? We hold on to someone who's going to come and fix all that and make it perfect,

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ignoring that there is original sin in every single one of us and every single baby that is born, which means it is going to repeat, because original sin tends away from God.

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And if a Lord himself chose not to fix this, which he could have, he could have created the specifics, I mean in baptism he could have instituted in baptism the power to fix original sin.

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He didn't. What does that mean? It means this is the royal road now to go to him. Why? Because you come to realize your weaknesses, you come to realize how broken you are and then you turn in love to him.

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Think about it this way, if tomorrow you win the lottery, will you go check your bank account? Will you work on your budget? Let's say it's 160 million, will you do any of this?

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That's the problem. We behave like we are lottery winners and not destitute wretched people who need Jesus every second of our life. And so we get distracted, we worry about other things, we get anxious with other things, and we love, we love to be victims and we love to feel desperate and we love to feel these strong emotions because they make us feel alive. And so we are getting ourselves distracted instead of using every second of our lives, every moment to be in a relationship with him. And so because of the covenant, he doesn't leave us alone. The Jews would have loved, I mean Israel would have loved if God could leave them alone.

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They had on his desk a bill that said break the covenant, we're done. They would have loved for him to actually break the covenant and be done with it.

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Never did. It's the same thing with us.

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The breach of rules and the covenant God sets the rules, the people are trying to set the rules for God, attempting to force him into their own political box.

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You see, I had mentioned this contraceptive mentality, how we tend to want to decide the size of our family, setting the rules for God. But we actually do it in so many other areas of our lives.

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Who are we going to talk to? What are we going to eat? How are we going to spend our time? We love to set the rules for God because we live apart from him.

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So fundamentally we live a life where we're basically divorced from God, but he will not let us go.

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So he keeps knocking on our door, keeps knocking on our door. When we don't listen, he whacks us on the head.

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Eventually, if we keep not listening, he'll give us cancer or some other disease that is beyond us, that science can't cure. And guess what we do then? Then we go to turn to him.

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Isn't that kind of a little sad? I mean, it's sad for him.

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He's like this lover running after us all the time and we're kind of pooping him away like he's some sort of pesky dog that is bothering us. And then suddenly we have a need for him and we turn around and we seek him.

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It's embarrassing really. All right.

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Walking on water. One evening came as disciples went down to the sea. That's the Sea of Galilee, Tiberius. Got into the boat and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea rose because the strong wind was blowing. When they had rode about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat. They were frightened, but he said to them, "It is I, do not be afraid." Then they were glad to take him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. Very odd text.

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This is a crucial bridge that is taking us now from the multiplication of the laws, the feeding of the multitude, over to the discourse on the bread of life.

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The multiplication showed Jesus as the provider of the covenant. His walk upon the water shows him as the Lord of creation who possesses the divine name.

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In terms of covenantal lawsuit, this is the strong party demonstrating that even the chaotic forces of the world are under his feet. Evening came, so it's darkness and in the book of St. John, darkness is always a sign of forces opposed to Christ.

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And they're crossing and Jesus wasn't with them. Notice, Jesus wasn't there. He could have been with them. He decided to let them go.

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They're on their own, apart from him trying to face the world. And they only managed to row three or four miles.

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And they're facing strong wind and they can't beat it. Then Jesus comes to them and what is their reaction? Are they glad? Are they happy? Are they overjoyed?

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No. What was their reaction?

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Who are they fearing?

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Who are they fearing? Who's causing them to be afraid?

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It's not a trap question. It's really simple. I just want you to say it.

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No, the Lord. They're afraid of him.

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They're afraid of somebody walking on the water. They're just afraid. That's normal.

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If you go to the beach and you see somebody walking on water, you'll be afraid. That's a normal reaction. So they're afraid of the Lord.

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Let's see, in the scripture, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

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Yeah.

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Notice this fear here. None of them stopped and looked at each other and started discussing. Is this a filial fear or is it a serval fear? What kind of fear are we going through right now?

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And try to analyze that, did they? They're just afraid.

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But their fear led to what? Led to this. It is I. That is the great I AM.

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The fear revealed God.

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Not love, not mercy, the fear.

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Why? Because the power of thinking about fear is that it makes you responsible.

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You're not realizing there are consequences when I'm dealing with this person.

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I better get my act together. That's the beginning of wisdom.

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That's why fear is important. That's why you should be afraid of the Lord.

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Say, Paul says, it is an awful thing to fall in the hands of the Lord.

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That's what St. Paul says.

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Now, I can hear what's going back in your mind because God is love, right? And we should love God. We should be fearing Him. See, this is why fear is important because it's the proper order of things. When you are afraid, you start, you stand in front of Him and you know He is God. He is the other. He is the unknown. He is infinite. He is so different from me. I can't claim that I understand Him.

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Stand in fear in front of Him and He is the one who is going to pull you into His love.

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Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.

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Fear doesn't presume that we are on equal footing.

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Fear doesn't presume that we're buddies.

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It doesn't take God for granted. It allows God to come to us and then pull us into His love the right way.

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That's why it is the beginning of wisdom and it is something that you should have all your life. Fear teaches you obedience. Fear teaches you humility. Fear endows you with wisdom. It teaches you how to worship God the way God wants to be worshipped. Fear makes you walk into the church and not say a word to anyone.

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Every word you speak in a church which is not spoken during the Mass is a venial sin.

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You're disparaging God. He is right in front of you in your presence and you're chatting with your friends.

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Fear teaches you not to do that.

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Fear teaches you to sit properly, to worship properly, to stay focused. You take God seriously. That is why fear is important.

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Now, as soon as they took Him on, immediately the boat was on land. Why? What is St. John implying? It implies that Jesus is the start and Jesus is the goal. When you're with Jesus, you've arrived. It doesn't matter where you are anymore.

[00:50:29:12 - 00:50:35:10]
He echoes that in the book of Revelation. "I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end."

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They're with Him. That's what they need to be.

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If you're with Jesus, you don't care where you're going to be, who you're going to be with, what you're going to be doing.

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You're where you need to be.

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So I already talked about this, Ammana. I'm going to skip it. "Other than without the strong party, our rowing is futile against the storms of the world. It is meant to be futile. It is meant for us to lose."

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That scandalizes people when I say it this way. But it's meant. We are meant to lose so we can find the Lord. "The divine name revealed."

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So Jesus said, "Ego Amy, I am." This is the divine name of the covenant God from the burning bush.

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And there is an echo. "Just as the Spirit hovered over the waters and Genesis 1 to bring order to the void, the Word now walks upon the sea. He is the Creator, reclaiming His creation from chaos."

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And I told you about the instant arrival. Okay, now the discourse, the manna of the new covenant, I have five minutes to go through this. Let's see how well we can do. I'm not going to read everything.

[00:51:59:20 - 00:52:37:29]
I'm going to hone in on a few things. So Jesus reminds them, "I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." So again, our focus is one I can get out of it, not on this is the Lord and I need to be with Him. And He reminds them, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him has God the Father set His seal." So reorient your priorities. Focus on me. Don't focus on anything else. Everything else you do should be a means for you to be in conversation with me. If it isn't, you're distracting yourself.

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What must we do to be doing the works of God?

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Here's the works of God. "Believe in Him whom He has sent." Observe. What is the works of God? Feeding the poor, taking the hungry, visiting the... No. No. From the mouth of our Lord, "Believe in Him whom He has sent."

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How could you believe in Him if you're not focused on Him with everything you got?

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That's the mission in your life, to believe in Christ, which means to understand Him to the degree that you can and live at peace knowing He's in control, He's the Lord of covenant. He will take care of you provided you have faith in Him. But take care of you does not mean you're going to have a happy life. It means you're going to have a holy life. And those two don't necessarily coincide.

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And then this reaches a conclusion, "Lord, give us this bread always." Now there's this echo with the conversation he had with this American woman. Where he moved her from the water which is stale to the flowing water. And she asked for it. They asked for it and now they're going to get hit with a double whammy.

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So far this is all reasonable.

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Now we're going to hit something that is not reasonable. "I am the bread of life." Now that is really hard. How could a person be bread?

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That's a normal reasonable objection.

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All right.

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One thing I want to highlight which is a very powerful running line throughout all of St. John is this.

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"I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me." Jesus is submissive.

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You see that? He is submissive.

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He is submissive in love to the Father. And he proclaim it proudly.

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So when you read St. Paul where St. Paul says to the woman to be submissive to her husband, that's a submission he's thinking of. This one here.

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It's submission in love, not in power.

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And I'll tell you this. Most good men don't want anyone to be submissive to them. They would rather run.

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Because it's a huge responsibility and we don't want it.

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So don't think it's something we enjoy. We actually don't at all.

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Okay.

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So.

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The Jews then murmured. Murmuring means rebelling.

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That's a key word in a Hebrew context that means to rebel, to reject. It's very strong.

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He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." Is it not Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know?

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So observe what happens. Here is Jesus walked on water fed the multitude. They've seen all that did all those signs.

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And as soon as he says something, they don't understand, they resort back to what they know.

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What is comfortable and they forget about everything else.

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That's what we tend to do as well. We do the exact same thing. We hear something that we don't like.

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That goes against the clashes where we are with our own convictions.

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We murmur. We reject it. "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on last day."

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All right.

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"I am the bread of life." Observe. He now repeats it the second time. Here, "I am the bread of life." And a third time, "I am the living bread." What I told you about triplets.

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It's a superlative, right?

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It's absolutely true. That's what he's saying.

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Absolutely true. "I am the living bread. And the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

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And interestingly enough, in the Hebrew and in the Greek, the word he uses for eat is an eat. It's chew.

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So he's insistent on that.

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Okay. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And then he doubles down. Not only you have to eat the flesh of the son of man, you have to drink his blood.

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Why does he bring in the blood?

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He eats my flesh, drinks my blood. Again, he eats my flesh, drinks my blood three times.

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Absolute insistence. You've got to do that.

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Why does he now bring the blood? Isn't that enough for the flesh?

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Why drink the blood?

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Okay. A few things.

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One. Actually, I need to. So many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying."

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And he explains it. He tells them why, but they basically say, "And said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless he's going to move my father."

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And then, after this, many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Why? Why did they draw back? Why did they leave?

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And by the way, there's a really cute little thing that happens here. If you notice, this is verse 66 of chapter 6.

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It's a good mnemonic to remember why that happens.

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It's the only place where you have 666 in the Bible, by the way. Now, I am not, by any means, telling you that God meant for this to be a sign. It's cute.

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Whatever the number is, doesn't matter. What matters is the text.

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What is it? What is it with the blood that really bucked them?

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First of all, you have to understand, somebody's standing here. If I'm standing telling you, "You have to eat my flesh and drink my blood,"

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yeah, you'd be nuts to go, "Okay, here's the cup. Pour it."

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You're not going to do that. So it's reasonable for them to react this way. But there's a second reason, even stronger than just the natural reaction of not wanting to drink or eat somebody's flesh or blood.

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All right. It's the Noaic prohibition. It's the covenant with Noah.

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In Genesis 9.4, and later, Leviticus 17.11, God strictly forbade the drinking of blood. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

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That is a very strict prohibition. If you violate this prohibition, what have you done?

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You basically excommunicated yourself out of the covenant.

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That's the problem they're facing. Jesus is explicitly telling them, "You've got to violate this covenant."

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How's that compute? How would you do that? It's very hard for them to even comprehend why He's asking them to violate the very covenant that God established.

[01:00:59:25 - 01:01:13:09]
Well, why did God establish this covenant here? This was provisional, but why? Because back then, magic, as it is today, was associated with blood.

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So that covenant was medicinal. It was there to contain them and help them free themselves from the influence of demons.

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But Jesus is basically telling them, "In order for you to be my follower, you have to leave the covenant of Adam and enter the covenant of the new Adam.

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And my blood is of a different nature."

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They couldn't understand that. No one really understood this. I bet you our lady herself didn't understand that.

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What they had to go by were the signs. They had to go by the signs. So it is with us. It is with us. Many times in our lives, there'll be things that happen that we don't understand. What you must go by is the church.

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The church is infallible in her teaching on theology and morality. That's who you follow.

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Whether you understand or you don't. You follow, then you understand.

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That's what you must go by. That is the anchor of your faith.

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There'll be plenty of times when the storm is going to rage and it's going to challenge you. You will be tested.

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And your answer should be, at the end of your life, the same as St. Teresa of Avila.

[01:02:39:21 - 01:02:42:00]
I die the daughter of the church.

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The disciples' objections are reasonable. They're trying to be faithful to the One Covenant. Jesus seems to be asking them to commit an abomination.

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That's why it's so hard.

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He didn't back off.

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And notice how he dives into the nitty-gritty of it all. He's really in the middle of it and he's just talking to them. He's not producing a ton of signs right now. He's not raising the dead.

[01:03:10:25 - 01:03:26:23]
He could do all that in that one instant. He could show them the angels, raise the dead, create another universe, do whatever he wants. He doesn't do any of this. He's addressing the reason and he's forcing them to struggle with it. Because in that struggle, they will find him.

[01:03:28:03 - 01:03:31:05]
Jesus is hidden in your struggles, daily struggles.

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Are you willing to submit? Are you willing to let go of your own preferences? Are you willing to be led?

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That's the heart of the Eucharist.

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Jesus is not asking them to commit an act of cannibalism but to receive his divine life. Since his life is eternal, consuming his blood transfers that eternity to the weak party.

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Briefly, our nature is human. A human begets human. Dogs begets dogs. Frogs begets frogs. We bring forth creatures, children, according to our own nature. In heaven, the faithful are called what? Sends and daughters of who?

[01:04:20:26 - 01:04:24:18]
God. What is the nature of God? Divine.

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You can have a dog named Fido. Your dog can, when you come home, the dog brings you the newspaper or your phone or tablet. Your slippers and grabs even a beer and opens it for you and bring it over. And then stand there and entertain you. Be the best possible dog you've ever had. Probably better behave than your own kids. Would you call this dog your kid? I mean, some people do. They're confused. But you won't. Why? It's a dog. Different nature. How could we be the children of God in heaven when our nature is human and God's nature is divine? There needs to be a transubstantiation that takes place. Where our human nature is transformed, transubstantiated into a divine nature. We don't become God, but our nature then matches that of God.

[01:05:21:18 - 01:05:30:18]
So what does Christ do? He created this marvelous thing called the Eucharist, where there is the divine nature and something that our human nature can consume.

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And with it, he transforms us. So they decided to go away. That is the sifting. The hard saying acts as a medicinal curse for those who reject it. They lose the fellowship.

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Peter does not claim to understand in this case. He doesn't understand. No one does understand. He's probably ask and analyze everybody else. But Jesus tells them, "Will you leave me too?"

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And then, "Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life?"

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To whom shall we go? Basically he's saying, "Jesus, right now, if there's somebody else that you can port us to, that's the time to do it."

[01:06:20:24 - 01:06:25:21]
Guess what? We're looking around, there's nobody else. Just you. So no, we're sticking with you.

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Not the greatest declaration of faith, but the intent is we're sticking with you. And that is enough.

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Even within the chosen, there is a devil, Judas. The covenant requires constant vigilance and internal fidelity, not just external belonging. My uncle used to say, when he would hear about the scandals in the church, he would look at me and say, "There were 12 apostles, one Judas."

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That ratio is still pretty much true.

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And he would just, you know, go about his life.

[01:06:59:04 - 01:07:28:04]
Don't try to fix the church. Don't try to fix the world. It will never happen. That's not the intent. The intent is for you to become holy. And this world with its messes is the tool that God uses for you to become holy and he gives you the graces of the sacrament, as the energy you need to become holy. If you understand these two things, you should at least have an abiding peace in you no matter what.

[01:07:30:07 - 01:07:48:10]
All right. Jesus provides a new manna on the mountain showing his the new Moses. He reveals himself as the I AM on the water, showing his the Lord of creation. And he requires us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, moving from observation of the covenant to participation in his very life.

[01:07:51:16 - 01:07:59:19]
So when we consume, we receive the Lord to give him glory and become holy in a troubled world. Remember, you don't go to mass to get something.

[01:08:01:14 - 01:08:15:13]
If somebody, you're talking somebody, "Mass is boring. Why am I going there? I just don't like it." Remind them you're not going to mass on Sunday to get something. You're going to give something. You're giving God the glory. It's your duty.

[01:08:16:15 - 01:08:19:14]
Now God, in his generosity, gives you eternal life in return.

[01:08:21:24 - 01:08:35:23]
You bring your five loaves of fishes and bread, which is your sacrifices for the week, and the little bit of attention to the liturgy before your mind wanders on sports and baseball and the rest of the world. And God in return gives you eternal life.

[01:08:38:20 - 01:08:42:25]
The Eucharist as peace in the storm of our lives, we must welcome Jesus in our boat.

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The Eucharist is the anchor of the covenant.

[01:08:46:25 - 01:08:56:01]
And we have to have the courage to believe. When the world calls the faith a heart saying, we stand with Peter. We don't ask how, we ask whom do we follow.

[01:08:58:11 - 01:09:35:25]
So this week, approach the altar not as a spectator, but as a weak party receiving the infinite strength of the living God. For next Sunday, when you go to mass, I want you to do this before you go to mass. I want you to imagine the church. I want you to look at the tabernacle and not just see a box. I want you to see the Most Holy Trinity, Our Lady, the saints and the angels. They're all there and they're looking at you. Then stand in front of your wardrobe, look at yourself and decide if that's the proper attire that you're going to wear. And then when you walk into the church, you have the host of heaven right in front of you. Ask yourself if this is the right time to chat with your neighbor.

[01:09:36:25 - 01:09:43:15]
If you want to chat, absolutely step outside. Talk all you want.

[01:09:44:26 - 01:09:48:14]
When you're back in, you're unhauling around.

[01:09:50:11 - 01:09:55:22]
So everything out of your mouth must be for the greater glory of God.

[01:09:57:07 - 01:09:57:26]
God bless you.

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Let's stand and finish with a word of prayer and then we'll take some questions.

[01:10:02:25 - 01:10:43:29]
In the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Dear Lord Jesus, we want to thank you and praise you and glorify you for every good thought, every inspiration you have given us tonight. We ask you Lord to give us, to send you effect. And we ask this through the intercession of Our Lady Most Holy as we pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. Now in the hour of our death, Amen. St. Joseph, St. John, in the name of the Father, the Son, of the Holy Spirit, Amen.