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Gospel Reading for April 19, 2024 – John 6: 52-59
GREAT LOSS
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
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Of course, the Jews would quarrel among themselves because none of them could understand what Jesus said. Even the disciples themselves who were with him for 3 years could not understand most of the things he said. The only difference between them is that the Jews could not just let go of something they could not understand from Jesus, while the disciples of Jesus were so used to just listening to him. As a matter of fact, there were many things they could not understand up to the very end of Jesus’ life and even after the resurrection, but with the coming of the Holy Spirit all that they heard from Jesus and all the things he did, became clear and understandable. If we are now able to understand and know better who God the Father is, it is because of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, our evangelists would have had so much difficulty recording all that Jesus said and did. And even John himself, the evangelist who wrote the last gospel, says: “But there are also many other things which Jesus did, which, if they were written in detail, I expect that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21: 25). Perhaps, without the evangelists, most especially the help of the Holy Spirit, we would not be benefitting from the Great Gift that is Jesus in the Eucharist! What a GREAT LOSS if that happened!
Thank you Lord Jesus, for the GREAT GIFT that you are to us!
