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Jesus is a strange, often controversial, figure.
He teaches us to love our enemies; to pray for those who persecute us; to turn the other cheek when someone strikes us; to pick up our crosses and follow him.
And while we’re at it, take nothing for the journey.
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But today’s teaching is probably the hardest of all to understand.
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven,” Jesus says, “whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
Eat my flesh, Jesus says, and you will live forever.
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Catholics understand this to be a reference to the Eucharist. It’s why we celebrate Mass every day.
Yet many Christians, even some Catholics, struggle to understand this. Some believe the Eucharist is plain bread and wine; a symbolic gesture.
Did Jesus ever consider the possibility that this particular teaching would be so hard to understand? Or was he oblivious to the idea of doubt?
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“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,” he says.
We must be drawn into belief.
This word, “to draw,” in Greek helkuein, always implies a type of resistance.
It’s the same word John uses to describe the effort it takes to draw a net full of fish ashore. Think of the resistance offered by the water, then by the sand.
That net literally has to be dragged.
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How often are we like a net of fish being dragged ashore?
We resist.
Although God constantly draws us into belief, we resist his pull.
Some resist believing in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Some resist believing in God’s presence in our lives. Some resist loving our neighbors or praying for those who persecute us.
But many resist the implications of our faith. If Christ is present in the Sacraments, then he is present in us.
This may be the greatest challenge of all: seeing Christ in one another, and acting accordingly.
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Instead of carrying these crosses, we drag them.
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“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,” Jesus says.
Even if we must be dragged like a net of fish in the sand, God will never stop drawing us deeper into love and belief.
But the less we resist, the happier – the freer – we become.
How can we lessen our resistance to belief today?
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