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 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 

 

 In the beginning of chapter 6 of St. John's Gospel, we read of the feeding of the five thousand in the wilderness. Following that, the people who were fed wished to take Jesus by force and make Him king.  Later the same people had followed Him to Capernaum, where He has been teaching about the true bread of life.  Yesterday we read that the religious leaders and their allies 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 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.   We've been reading throughout the chapter of Christ's discourse regarding the true bread from heaven which grants eternal life.  He has been disputing with those who oppose Him in the synagogue at Capernaum.   Here the Gospel records that even Christ's disciples took His teaching on His Body and Blood as a hard saying, and many walked with Him no more.  My study Bible comments 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.  It notes that because of the difficulty of grasping the depth of this Mystery, many attempt either to define its nature rationally or to explain away Christ's words altogether, giving them a purely metaphorical meaning.  My study Bible concludes that either extreme is dubious.  It tells us that to reject this sacramental teaching is to reject the witness of the Scriptures, as well as 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 is the appearance of St. Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, as it is given to us in St. John's Gospel.  As in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus has taught in the discourse preceding St. Peter's confession, "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.'  Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me" (in Saturday's reading).  This teaching is in alignment with Christ's response to St. Peter's confession in the Synoptic Gospels, "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).  St. Peter's answer here, in fact, emphasizes Christ's entire discourse referring to Himself as the bread from heaven, and that which gives everlasting life.  For His response is the answer that defines Christianity itself.  My study Bible states that St. Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, prevents the Christian faith from being seen as merely another philosophical system or path of spirituality.  Such a position excludes all compromise with other religious systems.  Also, St. Peter's understanding cannot be achieved by human reason, my study Bible says, but only by divine revelation through faith (1 Corinthians 12:3).  Christ means "Anointed One," from the Greek, and is equivalent to the Hebrew title "Messiah."

 

Jesus' uniqueness, as my study Bible notes, is of paramount importance in terms of St. Peter's confession, but also concerning the entire trajectory of Christ's teachings about His Body and Blood in chapter 6 of St. John's Gospel.   In yesterday's reading (see above), Jesus taught, "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."  This statement simply begs us to ask the question, who else but the unique Son of God could make such a claim?  Had Jesus been a human being like the rest of us, and not the incarnate Son of God, how could it be possible to be granted eternal life?  For it is the Incarnation itself that makes this possible, that human flesh touched by divinity becomes that which heals and offers this everlasting life -- life abundantly -- to us.  As He makes clear about the Eucharist throughout this chapter, it is through our participation in Christ's life that this is made possible for us.  Thus we may abide in Him and He in us ("He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him" - John 6:56).  All of this fits cohesively with Christ's teaching, "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6), for His identity is uniquely suited for this possibility.  There could be no Eucharist without Christ, and without Him there would be no comparable Crucifixion as an act of giving one's flesh for the life of the world ("I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world" - John 6:51).  The entire sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel has given us reason and rhyme and meaning and explicit statements regarding the intention of the Eucharist, how it will come about, and what it is for.  For all the dimensions of healing, restoration, and substantive growth, and all the ways in which we may benefit from it through faith tell the whole history of the Church, whose fullness continues to unfold.  Let us hold tightly this understanding in our hearts, and ponder this gift from the Giver, savoring the promise only His very uniqueness can give.  For only He is the Son of God, made incarnate in our world, for the life of the world.  

 

 

 

When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth

 

 "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.  They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.  And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.  But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.  And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.  But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  

 

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth.  It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.  

 

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine.  Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."

 

- John 16:1–15 

 

 This week we have been reading through Christ's Farewell Discourse, which was given to the disciples at the Last Supper.  Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, which tell of the manner in which the Eucharist was instituted, John's Gospel gives us the meaning behind Christ's ministry and the institution of the Eucharist, the substance of communion.  Yesterday we read that Jesus said, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer to I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another.  If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out  of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'   But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning." 

 

  "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.  They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.  And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.  But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.  And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart."  Here Christ elaborates on His warnings to the disciples of what is to come when He is no longer with them in the flesh, as Incarnate Jesus.  My study Bible explains that sorrow, in Christ's use here, means "extreme grief leading to despondency or despair," which is a sinful passion.  It quotes St. John Chrysostom, who comments, "Great is the tyranny of despondency."  Moreover, it adds that this sin is constantly referred to in the writings of the Desert Fathers.  When the world persecutes the believer or when God seems to be absent, Christians are called to fight against this despondency, taking comfort from the presence of the Holy Spirit (the theme of verses 5-15).  

 

 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth.  It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  "Nevertheless I tell you the truth.  It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."  Once again, we recall that the word in Greek translated here as Helper is Παρακλητος/Parakletos, sometimes rendered in English as Paraclete.  It literally indicates one who comes by one's side when called, as in participating in one's defense at trial.  This title also means "Comforter," "Counselor," and "Advocate."  My study Bible notes on this passage that through the illumination brought by the Holy Spirit, the world will be convicted; that is, it will be proven wrong.  It will be convicted concerning first of all its sin, of which the ultimate is denying Jesus Christ.  Furthermore, of righteousness, which it failed to accept from Christ with faith and thanksgiving.  And finally judgment, for all who reject Christ, according to my study Bible, will receive the same penalty that Satan, the ruler of this world, has already received (see Matthew 25:41).

 

 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He  will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine.  Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."  My study Bible explains that because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and because this Spirit abides in the Church, the Church is the guardian of all truth.  

 

 My study Bible comments that because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and because this Spirit abides in the Church, the Church is the guardian of all truth.  While over the centuries, the Church has contended with many heresies, many sects, and many divisions, this comment may make some wonder how it is that the Church can be the guardian of all truth.  But the Church exists as the institution founded by Christ and built, in a particular respect, by the Holy Spirit.  The Church also contains within it the whole of the "great cloud of witnesses" referred to by St. Paul (Hebrews 12:1).  That is, all the saints and the angels, those who have come before us, and in the sense in which the Church is an eternal spiritual construction, those who will come afterwards.  The Church is also a kind of divine-human construction.  While the Spirit is active in the Church, the Church also relies upon human beings in its ranks.  That is true at every level, from the highest to the lowest in authority, from parishioners to priests and pastors and bishops and hierarchs.  In other words, in this divine-human effort, we are also fallible human beings who are capable of making errors and mistaking the ways in which we come to know and understand the truth of the Spirit.  Nonetheless, despite this and our own capacity for problems, the Church remains the repository of truth; as my study Bible puts it, the guardian of all truth.  For everything is there that we need to find when we seek Christ, and desire to come to know God and our place in God's salvific plan for creation.  In St. Matthew's Gospel, when Jesus begins speaking in parables about the kingdom of heaven, He gives three that are particularly pertinent to this topic (Matthew 13:44-52).  First He speaks of the kingdom of heaven as being like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy he sells all that he has and buys the field.  Second, Jesus teaches that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, having found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.  Finally, Jesus teaches that the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea.  Here we come close to our understanding of the Church and the working of the Holy Spirit in it, for this dragnet is cast out and gathers some of "every kind."  But when it was full, the good was gathered into vessels and the bad thrown away.  This is a parable of judgment at the end of the age -- that which Christ speaks of in today's reading when He reveals the work of the Holy Spirit in the world, and the Spirits active and ongoing mission, which convicts the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, and at the same time guides the faithful into all truth, and glorifies Christ.  Finally, Jesus ends this teaching in parables by saying, "Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old."  And this treasure out of which every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven brings out things new and old is the Church.  This is the image of the repository of the Church as guardian of all truth -- a treasure to be cherished, upheld, lived, and grown into so that by its fruit it glorifies Father, Son, and Spirit.  Those who wish simply to use that treasure for their own gain or purpose will incur judgment, as will those who refuse to honor or receive its value.  That includes, as Jesus says in today's reading, "the ruler of this world," also called the father of lies (John 8:44).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you also want to go away?

 

 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, because of Christ's teachings, the religious leaders 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 drinks 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.  My study Bible comments that even His disciples took Christ's teaching on His Body and Blood as a hard saying, and many walked with Him no more.   To this day, it remarks, there are still those who reject Christ's own words concerning the sacramental eating of His Body and drinking of His Blood, and therefore do not "walk" in this teaching.  Because of the difficulty of grasping the depth of this Mystery, my study Bible continues, many attempt either to define its nature rationally or to explain away Christ's words altogether.  This takes the form of giving them a purely metaphorical meaning.  In either case, these answers are dubious.  To reject the sacramental teaching of Christ 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.  Simon Peter's response to Jesus contains two powerful statements.  The first is that He has the words of eternal life.  Peter implies that there is nowhere else to go; only Jesus has the words He preaches and gives to the people.  The second statement is, "Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  While others turn away because of Christ's "hard teachings," Simon Peter's faith is cemented and grows deeper; he is left with the conviction that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.  

 

Let us first stop to notice the effects of Christ's truth, stark as it is, and as seemingly inexplicable to His audience as His words are.  There are those who walk away.  St. John, the author of our Gospel, will also write in one of his Epistles of those who were once followers, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us" (1 John 2:19).  In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul asks, "Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?"  In a modern context, in which so many people seem to "shop for faith," to consider faith a kind of smorgasbord of ideas from which to pick and to choose in the ways that are personally pleasing, this scenario -- and any sort of shaming of those who can no longer follow Christ for these words -- may seem entirely unreasonable.  But, in effect, the Gospel and the events recorded here tell us yet again about our faith and how faith works.  Several Church Fathers comment on Christ's use of language in this passage, both to persuade and to caution.  St. Athanasius writes that "it is the part of true godliness not to compel but to persuade. Our Lord himself does not employ force but offers the choice, saying to everyone, 'If anyone will follow after me,' and to his disciples in particular, 'Will you also go away?'" (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, 2009; p 247).  St. Chrysostom praises Christ's way of speaking regarding the one who will betray Him.  He comments, "See the wisdom of Christ. He neither exposes the traitor nor allows him to remain hidden. In this way, [Judas] is not so publicly humiliated that he becomes more contentious, but Christ also does not embolden him by allowing him to think that his wicked deeds are proceeding undetected" (Homilies on the Gospel of John 47.4).  So we can marvel at all of these ways in which Christ not only tells what sounds perhaps like a blunt and brutal truth regarding his Body and Blood, but that in so doing He is acutely aware of the hearts of the people whom He addresses, and His effects on them.  He does not shrink from the truth, even when it offends.  And yet, at the same time, He elicits faith, as well as the reality of the heart which will betray Him.  We, with the saints and Fathers of the Church, are left to marvel, and to piece together our own faith based on what we read and encounter in this Gospel.  Perhaps the most astounding truth of all is that it is love that Christ is working upon, and that faith is closely entwined with love.  For what else do we make of Simon Peter's response to the words that have now sent others away:  "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."  It's at that heart-rending point of love that we come realize the importance of such questions as, "Do you want to go away?"  Just as Christ endured everything at the Cross for the love of His Father, and for His love of us, so we are also challenged with what is in our hearts when following is difficult.  Whether it is a bond with a spouse, a child, another loved one, or indeed, our faith -- it all comes down to love.  Do we want to go away?  Perhaps with St. Peter, we must say that there is no one else for us.  But His words will always challenge, and our faith will always pull us further along into the life He asks of us.  In the end, we know that God is love, as the Evangelist attests in his Epistle.  And it is love that has to lead us forward into the truth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 to 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 had 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 

 

This week we have been reading chapter 6 of John's Gospel, in which the eucharistic concepts of Christ as the bread of heaven, and also the sacrifice He will make on the Cross have been introduced.  Yesterday's text told us that the Jews 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 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 to 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 had 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 here that even His disciples took Christ's teaching on His Body and Blood as a hard saying, and many walked with Him no more.  To this day, there are still those who reject Christ's own words concerning this sacramental eating of His Body and drinking His Blood, and so do not walk in His teaching.  My study Bible further notes that because of the difficulty of grasping the depth of this Mystery, many attempt to define its nature in a rational way, or to explain away His words completely, giving them simply a metaphorical meaning.  But either extreme is dubious.  To reject this sacramental teaching is to reject the witness of the Scriptures and the unanimous teaching of the Church through its 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 is St. Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ as it appears in John's Gospel, within the context of other disciples turning away because of His hard saying on His Body and Blood (see above).  Let us note also the injection here of the note of betrayal, even among Christ's most intimate set of disciples, the twelve.  

For the first time in John's Gospel, the note of betrayal to come is mentioned.  Here, after a long discourse on Himself as the bread of life, and the bread which came down from heaven, Jesus finally interjects the truth about how His Crucifixion will come about -- the means by which He will give His flesh for the life of the world (see yesterday's reading, above).  Perhaps it is most noteworthy that just as other disciples desert Him for his hard saying about His Body and Blood, so it is at this time that Peter's faith is not simply crystalized, but the confession of faith (on behalf of the twelve as well) is made -- that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.  John's emphasis is important and interesting.  Not only is Jesus the Son of the living God, with its emphasis on the power of life itself, but Peter's confession is also one about the very words Jesus offers to them and to the world.  His are the words of eternal life.  In the following chapter of John's Gospel, the temple officers are sent to arrest Jesus, but are unable to do so.  When asked by the religious authorities why they have failed, the officers reply, "No man ever spoke like this Man!"  As this Gospel begins with the teaching that Jesus is Logos, the Word, so we understand that in His very words is the power of eternal life also.  As Jesus says, "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak" (John 12:49-50).  The power in His very words is the power of eternal life, rooted in the Source of all, God the Father.  Let us note once again that all things are determined through our response to these words of eternal life:  just as other disciples turn away, so Peter makes his confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ.  And just as this confession is heard on behalf of the twelve, so Jesus introduces the fact of betrayal among them, calling the one who will betray him a devil, indicating that in that betrayal is the power of the spiritual forces that oppose Him.  As we go through Lent, we head toward Holy Week and the story of the Crucifixion, death, and Resurrection of our Lord.  As Jesus informs the disciples about the betrayal to come (which they no doubt scarcely can comprehend), let us take into account what we know about that betrayal, that it is through Christ's death that the devil and death itself will be defeated, for all of us.  So let us also ponder that no circumstance can keep us from the love of God, nor from God's work in us and in the world.  Our present lectionary readings also give us selections from St. Paul's letter to the Romans.  Let us read his words:  "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . .  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35-39).  Neither will betrayal by a devil; for with God not only are all things possible, but for God's purposes all things may be used (see Romans 8:28).  When we see tribulation in our own times and in our lives, let us remember that God has a place and a way for us with which to meet all things.  We can say with St. Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you

 

 "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.  They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.  And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.  But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.  And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.  But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth.  It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.  

 

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine.  Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."

 

- John 16:1–15 

 

We are currently reading through Christ's Farewell Discourse, given at the Last Supper.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said to the disciples, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another.  If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'  But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."

 

"These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.  They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.  And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.  But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.  And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you."  Christ makes clear the persecution that is to come, just as He taught them (in yesterday's reading, above), that "I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me."  Let us note the double emphasis on knowing the Father, and recognizing the Father in Christ and His teachings.

"But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart."  My study Bible explains that sorrow here means "extreme grief leading to despondency or despair," which is, in fact, a sinful passion.  It quotes St. John Chrysostom, who writes, "Great is the tyranny of despondency."  This sin is constantly referred to in the writings of the Desert Fathers.  When the world persecutes the believer or when God seems to be absent, it notes, Christians are called to fight against this despondency, taking comfort from the presence of the Holy Spirit, a theme which Christ expands in the verses that follow.

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth.  It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."  The Helper is, of course, the Holy Spirit.  This word in Greek is Παράκλητος/Parakletos).  My study Bible explains that this title also means "Comforter," "Counselor," and "Advocate."  It is literally indicated to mean "One who comes [to one's side] when called."   This is specifically indicated within a time of trial such as in a courtroom, as one who can make the right judgment call, and give evidence that stands up in trial.  At the time of the writings in the New Testament, it was the word used for "attorney."  On these verses, my study Bible comments that through the illumination brought by the Holy Spirit, the world will be convicted; in other words, proven wrong.  It will be convicted concerning first, its sin, the ultimate of which is denying Christ.  Second, righteousness, which my study Bible says the world failed to accept from Christ with faith and thanksgiving.  And finally, judgment, for all who reject Christ will receive the same penalty that Satan, the ruler of this world, has already received (see Matthew 25:41). 

 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine.  Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."  My study Bible tells us that, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and because this Spirit abides in the Church, the Church is the guardian of all truth.  

My study Bible comments regarding despair or despondency that it is considered in the tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers to be a sinful passion.  We have to orient ourselves to what this means for us in order to understand it.  The passions are those things that lead to deteriorating condition in both our spiritual and bodily life, which would include the emotions.  Despondency or despair leads us to a decreasing perspective on life, and to be blind to God's goodness, and gratitude.  In psychological terms, we can see the devastation that comes when this takes over and colors all of life for us.  My study Bible quotes St. John Chrysostom, who writes, "Great is the tyranny of despondency."  And this is precisely the way that we should think of it, in saintly terms, as a kind of tyranny that is destructive to us.  If we consider that the "evil one" wishes to afflict those who suffer with despondency, in order to destroy life (the source of which is God, and particularly the Holy Spirit, who is called "life-creating"), then we understand that it is important to do battle against it, not to allow it to "take over" all of our lives in the tyrannical fashion that Jesus describes when He says, that "whoever commits sin is a slave of sin" (John 8:34).  In a modern context, we are called to compassion for those who suffer from such affliction.  But within the Christian context particularly of the Last Supper and Christ's discourse to us, we are called to wage war against such despondency, to take heart.  Christ Himself frames this deep sorrow of the disciples on these terms.  He has just told them the worst news imaginable, and at this time when He has just been welcomed into Jerusalem as King and Messiah (see John 12:12-15).  Clearly, from the dialogues recorded in the Gospels when they were on their way to Jerusalem, many of the disciples also held this expectation, and of a worldly kingdom to come.  But Jesus prepares them now for what is ahead; first He is going away from them, and second they are to be prepared for hatred and persecution.  How can we imagine their despair and despondency?  How griefstruck must they have been?  I doubt that we could even imagine it.  But Jesus' response to their sorrow is to encourage them with the word that "It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you."  Jesus prepares them for what they will lose, but also supports them in telling them what they will gain.  This is an important formula for our lives, particularly as faithful Christians, for we may take our own understanding and consolation in the communion of prayer and of the Church, finding the sustenance that remains when we experience losses in our lives.  For the Holy Spirit remains present to us, and in the communion of faithful, and the infinite creativity of God that the Spirit brings to the world in the energies of grace.  In modern psychology there are important contemporary studies of the effects of gratitude precisely in situations of despair, grief, depression.  In the very act of seeking out things for which one may be grateful lies a great key to turning around the tyranny of despondency.   The studies emphasize the self-initiated search for things for which to be grateful as key to changing despair and depression.  In other words, we are not simply at the mercy of our feelings or disposition; it is the act of seeking out elements for which to be grateful that does battle against despondency.  This formula is quite clear here in Jesus Christ's Farewell Discourse, for this is precisely what Jesus does and presents to the disciples, in this formula that "because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart," but nonetheless, "it is to your great advantage" because the Holy Spirit will be sent, the Spirit of truth, through whom Christ is always with us.  This is the great good news of the gospel, for we are not at the mercy of our passions, the things that drag us down and enslave us with a kind of tyranny we can feel, and even Christ Himself felt in His humanity (John 12:27).  For Christ it was the great communion with His Father that triumphed over all the suffering of His humanity, and for us, He teaches about the coming of the Holy Spirit, our Helper, the Spirit of truth, who offers Christ to us at all times, counsel, succor, and the light of Christ's path through all things.  In this, let us take heart, for it is Resurrection that comes after Crucifixion.  But it is within this seeming paradox that our faith is complete.  As His followers, we are called to fight the destructive things that oppress, including our own feelings of devastation and despair, and to look with faith to Resurrection as a reality we embrace, and the Spirit of truth who will bring us the spiritual light to which we need to cling, and which illumines the darkness.  Nobody said it would be easy; this is why we are "disciples," those who are learners and develop a discipline.  But we are assured that to remain in His love, we follow His commandments, and this indeed leads us to a greater understanding of and growth in that love, for such action expands what we know and who we are -- just like taking the initiative to find gratitude, to count our blessings, even when we don't feel like doing so.   Since the ancient times of Christianity's birth, our faith was understood to call us to a kind of contest, an arena in which we battle (Ephesians 6:12; 1 Timothy 6:12).  The difficulties and obstacles, even the hatred from the world, are not diminished in the Gospels.   Let us note that we're not presented with a naive attitude of blinded cheerfulness, but with a fully formed adult understanding of struggle, and also of the gifts of Christ of peace and joy.   From the statistics we can see on pharmaceutical sales, psychological studies, even current studies on young populations and the internet, we see that we have an overabundance of despair, depression, and anxiety.  All of this can be understood as experience of a kind of terrible spiritual tyranny, even for non-believers.   But we remember who we are when we take up the proper spiritual arms for battle against such oppression, and remember who we are, and the mission and struggle to which He calls us.  We have a Helper to which we turn.