There comes a time in life where we are asked to make a decision. And sometimes that decision is in the face of a hard or difficult message or a challenging circumstance that we are forced to deal with. That’s the context for the passage from John’s Gospel that is presented to us today. The “saying” that is referred to goes back to last week’s Gospel passage where Jesus said: “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…”
The response to this is what we are hearing this evening (morning). “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” And then we are told: “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” In other words, they walked away. Things were getting too uncomfortable for some of Jesus’ followers and they weren’t either willing, or ready, to take a risk and really start to trust in Jesus.
The same thing happens to us in our own life. We might face a challenge and get mad at God for allowing this to happen to us, and choose as our response to walk away from Jesus. Or, in some instances the challenge may actually strengthen our faith. But we have to make that decision. Give in to anger, perhaps, and walk away, or persevere and say, “Lord, I am really going to trust you now, and I’m doing this with no apparent guarantee as to what the outcome will be. But in the midst of the confusion—in the center of the storm I will NOT lose hope in you. I know that you have the power to help me! Give me the grace to not give in to fear and despair. Sometimes, when things get crazy in our life we keep asking ourselves, “What am I supposed to do?” And maybe the honest answer is: “Nothing, just trust in God and wait for Him to act”.
In order to really be at peace with Jesus no matter what is happening in our life takes time and some discipline. We have to not always allow ourselves to be ruled by our emotions and we have to take the time to pray and ask for help. We also need to be open to God’s grace acting in out life.
One of my favorite spiritual writers (still living) says that there are five “fundamental inner attitudes that attract unfailingly God’s grace. Here they are: humility, trust, living in the present moment, love, and gratitude.”
He concludes by writing, “We must practice them faithfully, do the work that falls to us, and after that keep quiet, so to speak; the rest (our growth in holiness) will happen by itself, God doing his work in us.”
