There is a tendency for us to define ourselves by what we do, and not by what we are. ‘What do you do?’ is not just the question; it is part of ordinary small talk. To a certain extent, what we do does indeed define what we are. But at the same time, what we have a certain priority over what we do. I know an educator that when you address her as Mrs., corrects people and says “that is Doctor”. The man who steals is a thief, but he is more than a thief to begin with, and even after the theft he can become something more. He can become a forgiven thief, a restorer of stolen goods.

This temptation to prize doing over being manifests itself in our words. We start to use the word ‘useful’ as a synonym for ‘good.’ We say, ‘I hope you find this useful,” when what we mean is ‘I hope this is good for you.’

An overemphasis on our actions leads us to value our jobs. People are proud of being a manager, a supervisor, a boss, a director. Indeed, the term ‘manager’ has mostly been emptied of its original meaning because of euphemistic over usage. And it is overused precisely because rank and status are confused with our identity, and because they are valued.

No one wants to be the lackey, the understudy, the pee-on. The mistake is to think that important jobs make us important people. They do not. Nor does the lack of such importance make us unimportant. The mistake is to believe that one is either a somebody or one is a nobody.

A similar confusion exists in the Gospels. The rulers among the Gentiles, Jesus says, lord it over them, and their great one’s exercise authority over the lesser ones. The exercise of power to serve one’s needs, no matter how good, is often a terrible thing. But worse is the desire for power as an end in itself. The desire to be a lord – a signor {Italian) – is a misplaced desire. St Catherine of Siena wrote to a particularly pompous prince, saying, ‘You desire lordship (signoria) over others, but have no lordship over yourself.’ There is no point in ‘managing’ other people when we cannot even ‘manage’ ourselves properly. And good intentions cannot justify our bossiness; in fact, it is a greater corruption to boss people around out of good intentions, because we will then make good look evil, and portray love as something hateful and hateworthy.

Jesus offers himself as a model for his disciples. The Son of Man ‘came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ The words he uses here mean ‘for many,’ in Greek, hoi polloi – for the riffraff, the general ordinary people of humanity. Indeed, it is for ‘the many’ that Jesus sheds his Precious Blood, as the new translation of the Mass conveys to us.

Jesus, who dies for the ordinary people, warns us against seeking lordship, and reminds us that he – Our Lord – came to serve us, the riffraff. He does not remind us of this to humiliate us, but to remind us of how much he loves us. Although he is Lord, he has shared our life with us, as the second reading says, ‘For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.’

Our dignity is not drawn from the things we do or can do. We are not valued for our quality of life. Instead, our dignity and value come from what we are, (human beings – rational creatures made in the image of God) and from what we are being made into (the children of God by adoption through grace). The lordship we Christians have is one of service to each other, just like the lordship of Jesus who came to save us, to save the hoi polloi.

 Ya know, sometimes Jesus says stuff that is difficult.  Sometimes it’s difficult to understand.  Sometimes it’s difficult to hear.  Usually, it’s difficult to do.  Like the Gospel appointed for today:  Today’s Gospel relates the story of “The Rich Young Ruler.”  It seems this guy kinda had it all.  He was a good person, had done well in life, did everything he was supposed to do, and on top of everything else, he was rich!  He had it goin’ on!  And then, he up and asks Jesus what he needed to do to get into Heaven…….and here’s the upshot.  Jesus said to him, he said, “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor (Jesus sure had a thing for poor folks) and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”  Well….the dude was NOT best pleased and went away sorrowing, coz, you know, he was rich, and he wanted to stay that way.

So what gives with this?   I have to believe that what Jesus is saying to us is this:  If we are going to walk with Jesus, we have a price to pay. Sacrifice and suffering and making difficult choices are part of the journey.  Jesus is demanding His rightful place in the hearts of His people.  Us.   We must love Him more than all others, more than anything.  Any thing.  More than our possessions, more than our bank accounts, more than our precious and dear little sins, and more than our political beliefs.  AND, to boot, we have to demonstrate that this is true, especially if we are forced to make a choice.

Jesus does not say “do not love” those other people—or those things, or beliefs, or whatever.  What He says is that we ought to love God more.  And in so loving God more, in following his path, we sometimes have to be willing to lose those things, whether it be savings accounts, connection to their family members, friends, political party,  or long and strongly held beliefs or feelings, in order to continue to follow Jesus and acknowledge to others that He is the Christ.  Jesus has to come first.

Loving others is the second greatest commandment, but it is behind the first: to love God with everything we have (Matthew 22:34–40). In making this statement, Jesus continues to make the claim that He is God. Love and obedience to Him must come before obedience to any other person or group (Acts 5:29).

And how do we show that love?  That willingness to sacrifice it all for Jesus?  Be merciful.  Be kind.  Show love.  It’s pretty much one of the key recurring factors of Jesus’s ministry.  Love God.  Love people.  Love God.  Love people.   Especially those who are less.  The poor.  The immigrant.  The homeless.  The downtrodden.  Those who are “other.”

In Matthew 25, Jesus was pretty explicit about this “love God, Love people” thing.  He said, “34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’  41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’  44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’  46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Isn’t it time that we, as Christians, start putting Christ first, start putting his people first?  Isn’t it time that we as true followers of the Jesus that we proclaim learn to treasure what we have been given?   Work for justice.  Work for peace.  Work for understanding. 

The second verse of that dear old hymn by Howard B Grose, “Give of Your Best to the Master,” sums this up pretty well:  

Give of your best to the Master;

Give Him first place in your heart;

Give Him first place in your service;

Consecrate every part.

Every part.  All of it.  Even when it’s hard.  Even when it hurts.  Love God.  Love people.  Amen.

No one even the Church has complete understanding of Jesus Truth. The truth is always greater than anyone’s understanding of it. Intolerance is a sign of ignorance and arrogance. It is a sign that a man believes there is no truth beyond the one he sees. St Thomas Aquinas warned that we should ‘fear the man of one book’ and I add, ‘even if that book is the Bible’.

In any democracy, freedom of opinion and speech is the hallmark. Voltaire, the brilliant French Philosopher and Scientist, was once criticized and opposed by one of his subordinates. He was very angry with the young man but said to him: ‘I hate what you have said but I can die for your right to say it’. He allowed his critic to become one of his closest friends until he died. In today’s gospel and 1st reading, God seems to be so liberal with the charismatic gifts of prophesy or what looks like from our eyes – like the gifts of tongues today and those of us suffering from ‘stop mania’ – the sickness of stopping this and yet allow the abusing in the Church may need to learn quite allot of lessons!

The disciples complaining to Jesus about the exorcist in today’s gospel who was not in the apostolic fold but casting demons in Jesus’ name could still be likened to the priest, pastor, charismatic brother or sister doing ‘ministrations’ in a queer unorthodox way. He/ she may not be the real enemy of the Church provided he/ she is working in Jesus’ name. But we may need to ask a few critical questions: Why is he/ she ministering? What results is he/ she getting and what fruits do these bear on the growth of the Church? Why are those complaining doing so? Are they complaining because they are jealous of the minister (who may be attracting more attention than themselves) or because they have true love for God and his Church?

Christ seems to say today that ‘Anyone who is not against us is for us’ (The Principle of Inclusive Tolerance) and that it is wrong to say that ‘Anyone who is not with us (i.e. doing it in our own way) is against us (Principle of Exclusive Tolerance). The Christian/ Church leader with the mind of Christ is one who can recognize human needs and minister to them as Jesus did irrespective of race, creed or denominational restrictions. We seem to be in a hurry to identify enemies of Jesus when according to Jesus how many of these do, we not identify as enemies;

1. THE UNCHARITABLE: Today’s 2nd reading shows the uncharitable rich people as the real enemies of the Church; those who cannot share what they have with the poor. Burning fire awaits them and their wealth is gone to rot and rust uselessly.

2. THE EXPLOITERS OF THE POOR: The exploiters of the poor wherever they are found whether outside or inside the Church are the real enemies of the Church; The rich politicians and rulers who loot our public treasuries and refuse to hand over power to others who will do better than them are the real enemies.

3. THE SCANDALIZERS OF THE WEAK: Ministers who confuse and corrupt their flock and abuse the minors sexually are the real enemies of the Church. Teachers who exploit and harass their weak students sexually and through other ways are the real enemies of the Church.

4. THE MURDERERS & THE VIOLENT: Those who promote acts of violence and any form of killing/ molestation of the innocent preventing them from going about their legitimate businesses are the real enemies of the Church.

5. PERPETRATORS OF INJUSTICE: Those who prosecute wrong judgment or bear false witnesses; those who sit in judgement with lies or those unlike them are the real enemies of the Church.

The first lesson we must learn from today’s readings is that salvation is not for any one group of individuals. The Holy Spirit is not the sole property of any denomination. As the Lord took some of Moses’ spirit and put on the 70 elders and they prophesied, he is still putting his Spirit in numerous unconventional places and people. The complaints against Eldad and Medad are still widespread among us as evidence of jealousy and religious hatred. Religious intolerance is ruining the world today and it has both internal (when it is against members of our own faith) and external (when it is against members of other faith) dimensions. We are not proposing doctrinal compromise, but spiritual expansion and maturity of judgment.

We need not worry so much about what we will stop in others as much as what we will stop in ourselves. We must stop all obstacles to our salvation and most importantly, we must stop ourselves from becoming obstacles to others’ salvation especially the minors and vulnerable adults (Christ calls them ‘these little ones of mine), the altar boys and girls around us, the junior Seminarians working under us, our father’s boys and girls, our maids and children, our students and apprentices. We must stop all corrupt influences we exert on them directly or indirectly, covertly or overtly, by commission or by omission.

We should worry more about those we prevent from seeing God because of the way we see him; those we ban/ debar from the sacraments and those we scare away from the Church through our stringent financial, moral or even liturgical rules. We need to worry more about the real enemies of the Church than the weak/ imperfect members of the Church who are trying to find their vocation.

In today’ society everyone thinks they know what counts as winning: doing better than other people; we think we know what counts as glory: everyone telling us how great we are and treating us with great respect; we think we know what counts as power: being able to make things happen the way we want them, and people obeying us when we tell them what to do. We want to be big rather than small, strong rather than weak, praised rather than blamed. It’s normal to think like that, isn’t it? (I have said on several occasions that I want everyone to be successful)

Jesus didn’t seem to think so.

It is not that he thought being killed was a lot of fun. We would believe it was the worst thing that could happen to us, Jesus knew that it wasn’t. It was the expense of being obedient to the Father, and it was not the end.

However, try to explain that to the disciples. They didn’t know what he was referring to when he said he was going to be killed and was going to rise again. They didn’t want to ask him. Maybe it was partly because the last time they’d shown they didn’t understand what he was talking about, they got a real telling off for being so obstinately stupid. However, they did not want to understand the terrible thing he was saying. If they were stuck in the belief that success means everyone is praising you, then Jesus was telling them that he was going to be a failure. Who would want to hear that?

Instead, they talked about something sensible to them as they traveled to Capernaum: they argued about which of them was the most important. Now that’s something real you can argue about; that brings us out of this strange world Jesus was showing them, in which the best man they had ever encountered would be killed. Arguing about who’s the greatest gets you back into the real world, of competition, of legends, of big and small, strong and weak, successful and unsuccessful. You know where you stand in this world. You know your place in the pecking order; there’s always someone you can boss around, even if other people boss you around. There are winners and losers. A world like that makes sense, even back then.

When Jesus asked them what they had been discussing, they felt a bit ashamed; they knew they were not thinking his way, even if they couldn’t – or wouldn’t – comprehend how to think his way. They realized they were not truly following Jesus. They couldn’t follow what he said, but more importantly, they didn’t have the attitude he had, so they couldn’t follow his path.

So, he sat down. In those times, the teacher would sit down, and the learners would stand. Jesus sat down to show that he had something very important to teach.

What did he need to say? In a typical Jesus remark, ‘If you want to be first, make yourself last.’ Did he say this just because he liked upsetting people? Could it be that he was simply telling the truth?

Being a good teacher, he used a visual aid. They were in a house, and there were kids around. In that kind of society, children would not have been seen as charming little things. The kids were a nuisance until they could make themselves useful. And Jesus grabbed a little child, who was no use to anyone, and said ‘Welcome this child and you’ll welcome me; and by the way, if you welcome me, you’ll welcome the God who is my Father.’ He chose a child as an icon of God, to show that God does not think in the competitive way the disciples were tempted to think – the way Christ’s disciples in our own day are tempted to think. The child was simply there, no use to anyone, but simply loved by God, precious to God.

That’s what our Christian vocation is about. It’s allowing Jesus to call us into his crazy world of death=glory, weak=strong, leader=servant, child=God. It’s refusing the competition that transforms at least half of the world into failures, to be deceived and written off. It’s saying that obedience to Christ sets you free, that refusing to have power over other people makes you happy, that not having control over your life through such things as wealth makes you fully human.

I don’t believe Jesus is having an identity crisis when he asks the question, ‘Who do people say I am?’ But in presenting this question about himself, he makes us ask the same question of ourselves.

Personal identity is a very modern issue, and people give a different response when asked who they are. It is uncommon for some individuals to describe themselves by their work or profession. It is by saying that they are a doctor or a worker that we can discover all we need to know about them. We can guess their education and their social background. We may be imagining what kind of house they live in and which way they will vote.

Another way in which we name ourselves is by our relationships. The television program, ‘To tell the truth?’ was very popular because we all want to know where we have come from, and someone else’s history will attract an interest in our own story. Nonetheless, the immediate relationships we have are likely more important than ancestors when determining who we are. To say that you are a daughter, a sister and a mother, and a wife, and then to name the relatives, you are in a particular family from which you give and receive life. The family context also allows you to look at the future, particularly through your children.

Certainly, there are many types of relationships that are not only relevant to us in the present and present, but also reflect on the future. The relationship between teacher and child is clear, but there are many others.

In answering Jesus’ questions, his disciples make a number of points about his identity. To suggest that he is John the Baptist is an easy mistake. We discover from the Fourth Gospel that John was preaching at the same time as Jesus, and stories about John would be mixed up with those of Jesus. To say he was Elijah suggests that Jesus is not only a prophet like John, but also a person who is embracing in the end of time because Elijah who went to heaven in a fiery chariot is expected to appear at the end of the world. Just being a prophet also reveals a lot about how God was perceived to be speaking through Jesus. When Peter said that Jesus was the Christ, the anointed one of God, he was claiming more.

It was hoped that the Christ would liberate the Jewish people from the oppression they were suffering under the occupation of the Romans, but Jesus was not a liberator. He began to liberate us from sin and to make us his people; and that is achieved by following him. Following Jesus through thick and thin, living according to his teaching, is not an easy decision.

He promises us everlasting life, but it is only by losing the one that we have will we be able to save our own life. It means being with Christ, and that means rejection by others just as much today as it was in Jesus’ time. By living the Gospel, we will be avoiding current trends, and our values will not be the ones of other people. This means that we will have to stand up for what we believe, and this will provoke a reaction against us. Being a prophet like John the Baptist or Elijah, calling people to see truth in the middle of the all the chaos of the modern world is far from making life easy for yourself, but it is the way to proclaim the kingdom we pray for in the Lord’s prayer. That is what giving up our lives to save it means. However, one thing we can be certain about is who we are. It can be quite exciting, as there should be no identity crisis for Jesus’ followers. No longer will we be searching for the meaning in the dark. We can follow the Christ and know that if we are faithful to him then we have a future that extends beyond this life. We can now define ourselves in a new way. No longer do our profession, job, postcode, and status or salary matter in this life. The values of the world have been turned upside down so that we can see the world the right way, which is with the eyes of Christ.

If anyone asks you who you are, you can say, ‘I am a child of the highest God, the brother or sister of Jesus Christ, and I am heir to eternal life’.

That should clarify any questions about identity for them and for you.

What love, respect, consideration, and faith on the part of those who brought to Jesus the deaf man with the speech impediment? They believed He could heal this person.

Nowadays, we are referring to people being challenged to think and act positively within the limitations of their own situation. Within my own circle of family and friends, in my visiting schools, hospitals and special homes, I have been deeply moved by the loving respect, the supportive, encouraging acceptance that has been shown to those who are in any way challenged – allowing them their own space to be themselves, ‘do’ for themselves and accomplish it themselves.

We all know that this is not always the case. I don’t want to dwell on this now, nor do I wish to rush into reading something spiritual or symbolic into Jesus healing the deaf man with the impediment in his speech. Rather, I welcome the opportunity to record my admiration for teenagers who talk about their future careers and tell me they wish to become professionally involved in teaching physically, emotionally, spiritually challenged children and adults or in caring for the elderly. Here is a call, a vocation, to a lifetime of expressing love in a very practical way. Such care-givers are most surely signs of the Kingdom of God being present here and now before our very eyes. They are sacraments of the compassionate, healing ministry of Jesus vividly present in our midst.

The Gospel of today tells us that Jesus “put His fingers into the man’s ears and touched His tongue with spittle. Then looking up to heaven He sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened,’” and that, “And his ears were opened, and at once the impediment of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly.” Those who witnessed this were filled with admiration. He has done all the things well, as they saw this to be not only an act of power but also a form of love.

From the early days of Christianity, the Church has seen this healing by Jesus as a sign of the spiritual healing, character shaping, which takes place shortly after a person is baptized. In the Rite of Baptism, it is told that,

‘The celebrant touches the ears and mouth of the child with his thumb, saying, “The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May he soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father.”

In this age of highly sophisticated communication technology, it is possible for small children. I believe that this simple rite of blessing of the ears and mouth is of huge importance and significance.

The ears represent our ability to receive sounds and images that can influence the way we think, feel and act. Our words represent the ability to convey messages that have an impact on the lives of others. Our intake and output of ‘media matter’ will often be for better or worse- morally, spiritually, as well. We must ask ourselves what we are doing to ourselves through what we are listening and reading; what we are doing to others through our words and body language. In both cases, it could be beneficial, or it could be a lot of damage.

The choice is ours. It is a moral and spiritual choice. We may be inclined, enticed or tempted to consume material that is spiritually unfit for human consumption. At baptism the ears are blessed that we may choose to receive the ‘godly word’ and reject the ungodly one. Our mouths are blessed that we may communicate with others inspiring words that are truthful, charitable, and moving and resist the temptation to lie, mislead, and talk nastily about others.

God knows, even if we don’t, how much we all need healing and restraining in the wonderful, terrible world of inter-personal and mass-communication! What a challenge we must face and encourage others to do so!

Every so often it’s worth asking ourselves do we mean when we say certain things; and this perhaps even more so when we are dealing with religious language, or indeed, with the word ‘religion’ itself which appears in today’s second reading from the letter of St James.

We are used, in these days of secularism, to people rejecting or ignoring ‘religion’. I was particularly struck by the fact that a friend, not a Catholic, informed me that he did not believe in religion. This surprised me because my friend is not an atheist: he believes in God, goes to church, says his prayers and tries to be good; yet he says he doesn’t believe in organized “old” religion. Well, it seems that he must mean by ‘religion’ something rather different from what St James means.

The Greek word used by St James is derived from a notion of fear of God – or indeed the gods – and usually refers to acts of worship. We believe that Christians engage in acts of worship and speak of ‘fearing God’ in a positive manner. This is just right and correct, and indeed commanded by God in the scriptures. But St James makes it clear that ‘religion that is pure and undefiled’ is much more than that.

Religion can be used to refer to the religious organization and discipline, so that ‘catholic religion’ refers to Church structures, norms and regulations. We are often called to worship God as a community, structured and governed in a particular manner – that is right and proper. However, true religion is much more than that. Those notions of religion as belief in God, acts of worship or structures and discipline are the ones you are likely to find in a dictionary; however, they are not the ones you find in the New Testament.

Understanding religion in those dictionary terms is a risk of the kind of pharisaism that we hear about in today’s Gospel. The Pharisees, to be fair, have a clear concern for the commandments of God, which is commendable. They have a strong sense of the closeness of God as emphasized by Moses in today’s first reading. All that is well and good. However, their application of those commandments is so rigid that it loses the real meaning. The point of all those commandments is that we might be holy, that what comes from the inside might be pure, and not make us unclean, and that we might shun all those vices mentioned in the gospel passage.

I wonder whether when our contemporaries reject ‘religion’ it is in fact this ‘pharisaism’, or at least perceived pharisaism, that they are rejecting. More than likely they are.

True religion, as the Church understands it, is essential for us to do our duty to God. That certainly includes worshipping him, and being active members of Christ’s body, the Church. It also entails striving for holiness, for that is what God created us for and redeemed us. It includes, therefore, aiding the afflicted, looking for the good, avoiding those things from the inside that make us unclean. ‘Religion that is pure and undefiled… is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself from the world’ (James 1:28).

We may go to church regularly; we may seem, from the outside, to be living our lives in accordance with the commandments of God and the Church; we may seem to be people who do not murder, steal and so on; we may hear the word of God, and even endure the homily without complaining. Well done, if you do; but if that is all we do, then we deceive ourselves and are unaware of the word only and not “doers”. If that is all we do, then it is not surprising that ‘religion’ has a bad name.

We must, of course, put the word into practice. Not just seem’ religious, but be holy, helping the poor and suffering, and being pure in what comes from inside. We must be referred to as ‘religious’ and only then can we hope for the virtue of true religion to be seen and looked for what it is.

Today brings us to the conclusion of this long chapter of St John’s Gospel, and Jesus’ sermon on himself as the bread of life. Today, we are invited to decide on our own responses to the extraordinary claims Christ makes for himself, and to the extraordinary language in which he expresses himself.

We are informed that the response of many of those disciples of Jesus who listened to this language was to abandon Jesus. The way Jesus speaks of himself is ‘hard’. The New Revised Bible, which most Catholic churches in United States use, translates it as ‘This is unbearable language’, which sounds rather like someone writing to the New York Times to complain about swearing on any of the major networks, but at least captures the sense that they are driven away from Jesus by the way he speaks.

And this is quite understandable: we have been told that we must eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood, or we cannot have life in us. Jesus’ flesh and blood are life-giving because he is sent by the Father and draws the life from the Father (verse 56). This illustrates the central mystery of Christ’s identity. He is completely flesh and blood, as we are, living and breathing, sweating and thirsting when it is hot, bleeding when he is pierced and dying when he is hung on the cross. At the same time, he is truly united to the Father, enduringly coming from him and with him and the Holy Spirit, the source of all life, all existence.

He invites all people to share in his union with the Father through sharing, in the most intimately intimate manner of eating and drinking, in his human life, his death, and his human rising from the dead. This invitation is presented, in this sermon recorded by St John, in words both beautiful and frightening, both delightful and appalling.

Little wonder, then, that most people turn away. This invitation seems too magnificent to be real and too horrible to accept. As it was in the beginning, so it is now: if the Christian Gospel is authentically preached, preached as it was first preached, it will eventually meet with this reaction, and we know that it has been done since the earliest days of the Church. Neither should we be ashamed if this same reaction arises in our hearts too. The mystery of who Christ is, and of the life he provides us, is deeper than the ocean and higher than the heavens. It is like the sun bursting in, and if we find ourselves trying to put the pillow over our heads, which is only natural. However, the warmth of this sun draws us from our hiding places, and its brightness enables us to gaze at it, until we can do so unblinkingly in the glorious light of heaven. St John’s Gospel is a challenge to enter into the light, for all that it will show up our faults and failures, and not to be like those who prefer to scurry off into the darkness.

There is a third possible response that the Gospel does not anticipate. Perhaps it was not possible at the time, when Jesus was walking the earth, but it is possible and common enough now. That is to imply that Jesus did not say what he said or did not mean what he said. It is the temptation to reduce the mystery to a manageable size, to reassure ourselves that of course Jesus doesn’t really offer us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink… of course Jesus isn’t really saying that the sacramental sharing in his life and death are how we enter into the eternal life of God.

However, these words of Jesus are, as said by St Peter, ‘the words of eternal life. We can say with him that ‘we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’ It doesn’t matter that we cannot comprehend the mystery of the Eucharist; all will become clear in a short period (God’s time, not ours). It is important that we acknowledge the reality of the invitation it offers us. To whom else, after all, shall we go?