Today, Fr. Baker gave a really awesome homily about the Eucharist. I really wish I had known beforehand how awesome it was going to be. I would have brought my voice recorder to Mass. I might do that next weekend.

Anyway, he was talking about how there are moments of crisis in our lives, moments when we are forced to choose.

For instance, in the first reading, Joshua tells the Israelites, "Choose today whom you will serve." He throws them into a crisis, and they have to make a choice. They have to choose whether to serve the Lord. They do choose to serve the Lord, luckily. When left to just muddle around, they stray away from the truth. When forced into a crisis, though, they recall the wondrous deeds God has done for them, and they recommit themselves to serving Him.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus throws His followers into a crisis. He says, "My flesh is true food," and the people around Him say, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept this?"

Then, of course, the Gospel foreshadows all the schisms and Protestantism that have occurred since Jesus' time.

Rather than saying, "You're right. That would be hard if it were true, but it's just metaphorical," Jesus says that He absolutely meant it.

This sends everyone following Him into a crisis. He says He will give us His flesh to eat. Either we have to accept that, or we have to reject Him. No more Protestantism, no more middle ground. Either eat Him or leave Him.

Sadly, many of them leave. As Fr. Baker pointed out today, it would have been an impossible thing for them to understand, since the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and Pentecost had not yet happened.

Then, Jesus turns to the 12, the core of His followers, as Fr. put it. He asks, basically, "What about y'all? Are y'all gonna peace out, too?"

Fr. Baker said you'd expect Peter to say something here, like, "We think this new teaching is totally awesome, and we can't wait to learn more!"

Instead, he says, "Where else would we go?"

This is one of the strongest Biblical cases for Mysteries! Peter doesn't understand the Eucharist, none of the Apostles do or even can at this point. Jesus just spouted off the craziest sounding teaching in the whole of human history, that everyone needs to eat and drink Him to become immortal. They don't understand that. It's weird and unknown; it's a mystery.

But they don't need to understand it! They simply need to believe it at this point. They know from their experiences with Jesus that He is God, and thus they accept everything He says, without proof or explanation. Proofs and explanations make for interesting discussions and are a good way to try to grow closer to God, but they are not necessary for faith.

"Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe." - Jesus

So, Peter's words become incredibly profound, and his words echo those of the Israelites to Joshua so long before his time. He says, "Where else would we go? You have the words of everlasting life." Basically, He is willing to put all His trust in Jesus. He has already come to believe that Jesus is God, and He will humbly accept anything God tells Him as truth.

I will write more on these readings tomorrow. If you have any thoughts to add, let me know.

I'm praying for you!

:)