Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life

 

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

 

- John 6:60–71 

 

Yesterday we read that the religious leaders in the synagogue at Capernaum quarreled among themselves because of Christ's teaching regarding His flesh as the bread of life, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"  Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.  This is the bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead.  He who eats this bread will live forever."  These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.   

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  My study Bible comments that even His disciples took Christ's teaching on His Body and Blood as a hard saying, and many consequently walked with Him no more.  There are still those who reject Christ's words regarding the sacramental eating of His Body and drinking of His Blood, and so do not "walk" in this teaching.  My study Bible continues, saying that because of the difficulty of grasping the depth of this Mystery, many try to define its nature rationally, or else to explain away the words of Jesus completely, giving them a solely metaphorical meaning.  But, it says, either extreme is in fact dubious.  If we reject this sacramental teaching then we reject the witness of the Scriptures and the unanimous teaching of the Church throughout history. 

But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.  Here we witness Simon Peter's confession of faith in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God."  My study Bible comments that Peter's understanding of the identity of Jesus defines Christianity.  This comprehension prevents Christianity from being seen as simply another philosophical system or path of spirituality, because it names Christ as the one and only Son of the living God.  Hence it excludes all compromise with other religious systems.  He Himself is the Savior.  Once again, John's Gospel emphasizes Jesus' capacity to know people, as part of the divine wisdom present in Him, when He speaks of the future betrayal by Judas Iscariot.

In today's reading, my study Bible comments on the understanding of the sacrament of Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist.  What we might call "sacramental thinking" permeates the Church, and has done so from the earliest times of Christianity.  In a first century teaching manuscript called Didache (meaning in Greek, the Teaching) we may read the celebration of the Liturgy referred to as "the Eucharist," and so indicating its centrality to faith and worship.  In yesterday's reading and commentary, I quoted from this article by Fr. Stephen Freeman, a priest in the Orthodox Church of America, regarding the nature of sacraments.  Fr. Stephen wrote of the sacraments of the Church, including the Eucharist, "In each of these we observe that God has taken up an ordinary action and made it a means of grace. The sacraments of the Church are each, in their own way, given to us as a means of communion with God."  This notion of communion with God is so important that our Gospels are permeated with it.  Christ chooses disciples who will live with Him, observing all things He does, learning from Him through a shared communion and participation in His ministry.  It is a Person-to-person communion, if you will, comprising both individuals and the community of disciples as a whole.  In St. Paul's writing, this communion extends beyond this world, to the "great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1), consisting of the faithful who have passed and also the angels of God.  Fr. Freeman elaborates that grace itself, in the Orthodox understanding, is the "energies of God."  That is, God in God's action of mercy, reaching toward us, and active in our world, thus present to us in a way that we might receive even though we cannot grasp God in God's fullness of being.  So, this notion of sacrament that Christ gives us in communion, that is made possible through His sacrifice on the Cross (His suffering, death, and Resurrection) is something we must accept as an action of God given to us for the deeper communion that saves, that gives us the saving faith that makes life with God, in this "everlasting" sense of life, possible for human beings.  Ultimately, as Fr. Freeman, explains, grace is love, God in action seeking to bring us closer and deeper, even in the sense of the life of the Kingdom, and its eternal or everlasting reality.  Therefore the notion of sacramental thinking -- of that through which, though consisting of "earthly" matter, is imbued with something greater than itself, made possible through the divine grace and action of God, so that we may partake of it, participate in this life, experience it.  In the Gospel according to St. Matthew, when Peter makes His confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus tells Him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:17), and this revelation of faith, through God the Father, becomes another example of grace made possible for us, which Jesus has referred to in our present chapter of John by quoting from Isaiah:  "And they shall all be taught by God"  (see Saturday's reading).  In today's reading, Jesus reiterates a similar thought, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  If we fail to grasp that God can be active in the world, even working in and dwelling within and among us, then we fail to grasp our faith, so central is this understanding to Christianity and the teachings of Christ.  Even in the Incarnation itself, it is grace, God's love, reaching to us for deeper communion.  In the Eucharist, the material things of earthly life become instruments of that grace, giving us a depth of communion conferred by God, for this is how holiness works.  In this sense, the world can become a sacrament, as Fr. Freeman writes.  Works done in the name of faith or devotion, a garden dedicated to the glory of God, an act of beauty -- to see the work of God in the beauty of the world, in a life lived righteously in relation to any or all of it, is to come to a deeper sense of faith and God's love.  In today's reading, Jesus teaches about the power of Spirit to confer life, that even His spoken word has this same quality of the living reality of Spirit, of sacrament and grace:  "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."  St. Peter, through his faith, understands this, saying, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life."  A world with the kingdom of God stripped away from its meanings and lived experience bears no relation to the sacramental picture of life Christ offers us, in which God participates with us and within us, drawing us into deeper communion.  Let us recover who we are in this sense, and where it places us in the grand scheme of creation, for in the story of Jesus, God has come to search for us, to save us and take us back to our true "home" and the fullness of true life, as only God could offer us -- even today, in the here and the now of our world.  Let us be thankful!

The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life

 

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, "Therefore I have said no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

 

- John 6:60–71 

 

 

Yesterday we read that the leaders of the synagogue in Capernaum quarreled among themselves regarding Jesus' teaching, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"  Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.  This is the bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead.  He who eats this bread will live forever."  These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. 

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, "Therefore I have said no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.   My study Bible comments that even Christ's disciples took His teaching on His Body and Blood as a hard saying, and many walked with Him no more.  There are still those, it says, who reject Christ's words concerning the sacramental eating of His Body and drinking of His Blood.  This is a highly difficult Mystery to grasp, and many have attempted to define it rationally or to explain it away as purely metaphorical.  (See yesterday's commentary in which we discussed what the sense of "Mystical" means.)   My study Bible comments that either extreme is dubious; to reject Christ's sacramental teaching is to reject the witness of the Scriptures and the unanimous teaching of the Church throughout history.  

Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.   Here in John's Gospel, we have Peter's confession in the light of the words and teachings of Christ:  "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life."   My study Bible comments that Peter's understanding that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God cannot be achieved by human reason, but only by divine revelation through faith (1 Corinthians 12:3).  

In today's reading, Jesus repeats His teaching from Saturday's reading ("No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him"), saying, "Therefore I have said no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."   But coupled with this teaching is a new element, which we might say in some sense characterizes John's Gospel, and that is the life of the Spirit.   In Matthew's Gospel, when Peter makes His confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus tells him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven" (see Matthew 16:16-18).   This therefore underscores Jesus' repeated teachings in our recent readings that no one can come to Him unless drawn by the Father; we are only capable of knowing Christ through a desire for God in the heart.  But here, the vivifying, living reality of the Spirit is also given to us in both St. Peter's words and in Christ's teachings.  Jesus says, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."  And St. Peter affirms the human perspective that grasps for such a living reality where it is met:  "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life."  So, in a sense, there is a theophany, or revelation of God -- Father, Son, and Spirit -- in today's reading.   Here in John's Gospel, as contrasted with Matthew, Peter's confession of faith includes this working of the Spirit, in the "words of eternal life" which Jesus says are "spirit" and "life."  Therefore,  Father, Son, and Spirit are inseparable also from Peter's confession of faith.   Perhaps it is that John's Gospel is the last of the Gospels to be written, and reflects the illumined understanding in the experiences of the early Church, and the unfolding of the work of the Spirit that informs it.  It is distinguished through Christ's words and teachings, and through Peter's confession, that the role of the Spirit is also inseparable from how we experience faith and how we grow in that faith, and this is the experience of the early Church as reflected here.  The Father draws us and makes possible our capacity to know Christ as Son, and His words are spirit and life.  And we, like Peter, are also drawn by His words, for nobody else has the words of eternal life.  We can look around and ask ourselves, where else shall we go?  Who else has the words of eternal life?  In the literature of the world, we can search and find, no matter the beauty, or the inspiration, or the sublime quality we find elsewhere, none has had the impact of Christ's words -- so that even those who quote wisdom often don't realize they are quoting the teachings of Christ.   Jesus brings together Father, Son, and Spirit -- and together they are met in us, with us.  For we, like Peter, are given these words of eternal life, and Father, Son, and Spirit work in us to help us to come to faith and to grow in that faith through time and through their communion.  Let us accept the power of His words, the light and the life that are in them, and understand.

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God

 

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they hard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.   And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

 

- John 6:60–71 

 

Yesterday we read that those in the synagogue at Capernaum therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"  Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.  This is the bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead.  He who eats this bread will live forever."  These sayings He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

 

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they hard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.   And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.   My study Bible comments that the text tells us that even His disciples took Christ's teaching on His Body and Blood as a hard saying, and many walked with Him no more.  It notes that to this day, there are still those who reject Christ's own words concerning the sacramental eating of His Body and drinking of His Blood, and thus do not walk in His teaching.  There is a great difficulty in grasping the depth of this Mystery -- and perhaps even the notion of Mystery itself.  Many attempt either to define its nature rationally or, on the other hand, to explain away Christ's words altogether, and give them only a metaphorical meaning.  But my study Bible comments that either extreme is dubious; to reject this sacramental teaching is to reject the witness of the Scriptures and the unanimous teaching of the Church throughout history.  In the Orthodox churches, Christ's words regarding His Body and Blood have always been accepted as true, as Justin Martyr writes, "that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from Him is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus."  This is a mystical truth; like so much of Scripture itself, it cannot be explained away only as symbolism nor taken in terms of literal earthly understanding.

 

Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.  Here is Peter's confession of faith in John's Gospel.  There are two important parts to it:  that Jesus has the words of eternal life, and that, as spokesman for all the disciples, Peter says, "Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  My study Bible remarks that Peter's answer prevents the Christian faith from being seen as merely another philosophical system or path of spirituality, as it names Jesus as the one and only Son of the living God.  This excludes compromise with other religious systems; this can only be achieved by divine revelation through faith (1 Corinthians 12:3, Matthew 16:17), not human reason.  

Simon Peter replies to Jesus, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."   And so it might be with us, who live and believe so many centuries later.  Where else will we go?  Who else has these words of eternal life?  Where else do we hear the word that makes our heart burn as with a flame except in these Gospels, the word of Christ, as His words did to the disciples on the road to Emmaus?   (See Luke 24:32.)   Jesus says, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."  When we step into Scripture, and especially into the words of Christ, we step into a place which the Spirit must help us to understand; and yet, it is the Spirit that gives life, as we say in the Creed ("the Lord, the Holy Spirit, the giver of life").  Even when it is hard to have faith in the face of what we experience in life, even when it is hard to believe given our limited understanding, these words of eternal life grasp us in places we didn't know we had, deep inside our hearts, in our souls.  And the words of St. Peter remain true, there is nothing that equals the power and effect on the heart of what we read in Scripture.   We have repeatedly quoted from St. Augustine's commentary on this chapter, and let us do so again.  He writes that Christ teaches us that even the act of believing is a gift and not a matter of merit.  Earlier in the Gospel, Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God'."  St. Augustine points out that this is more literally read, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me drags him," and this is quite true, to "drag" or pull is the meaning of the word in Greek, a compelling drawing power.  It means to attract, in the sense that a magnet attracts and draws iron alloys to itself.  St. Augustine writes, "This violence happens to the heart, not to the flesh. So why be surprised? Believe, and you come; love, and you are dragged. Do not regard this violence as harsh and irksome; on the contrary, it is sweet and pleasant. It is the very pleasantness of the thing that drags you to it."  And so, the words of life contain Father, Son, and Spirit, and we respond in our heart and soul.  Whether or not we fully understand, there is a part of us that responds with a kind of flame inside of us, and we are taken along on this journey of faith.  It is not Christ who must conform to us, but ultimately we who conform to Christ, we who are conquered by love and the power of love -- and that is really the power in the words of eternal life.  That is why we put our trust in Him, especially when there is nowhere else to place it.  This is Peter's faith, and we may have the grace to find it in us, in the heart that responds to His word.  We should not think we are so different from the disciples nor that we live in such a different time:  there was a dizzying array of belief systems and philosophies in the ancient world into which Christ came.  But there remains only One with the words of eternal life that touch hearts around the world.