At this point, we have noticed a crowd of people who had tagged along with or Lord.  But here, however, things start to become tricky for them.  So far, they could just have accompanied Christ for a free lunch, so to speak.  Bread is what they desired, and bread is what they received.  They were so busy with stuffing their faces with the free food they couldn’t or wouldn’t want to reflect on the deeper of significance of the event – that is the miraculous feeding of thousands.

But then Christ started to speak about Himself as the Bread of Life, or the ‘living bread’ which had ‘come down from heaven’, and to say that people must partake in that bread in order to be saved.  And once he had said things like that, then it would no longer be possible to remain nonchalant and passive and uninvolved.  They could no longer be contented just being fellow travelers for free food!  The people must decide about what Our Lord was saying.  Either accept it and commit oneself to it or reject it and leave it behind.

And so that is where we find ourselves today with the Gospel. Today’s Gospel is all about the deeply disturbing statements by the Lord.  “I AM THE LIVING BREAD THAT CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN; WHOEVER EATS THIS BREAD WILL LIVE FOREVER; AND THE BREAD THAT I WILL GIVE IS MY FLESH FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD. . . . 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 TRUE DRINK.  WHOEVER EATS MY BREAD AND DRINKS MY BLOOD REMAINS IN ME AND I IN HIM.”

Some of the people who heard this were shocked and said, ‘this is intolerable language.  How could anyone accept it?’ They decided it wasn’t for them and they left.  Indeed, in some cases they started to plot against Christ.  But Simon Peter, who, when challenged by Christ replied, ‘Lord whom shall we go to?  You have the words of eternal life.’

Clearly Peter and his fellow apostles who responded in this way had decided on the different path: they decided to take Christ at His words.  And they put it at the core of their being.  Notice however, they made an effort to follow Christ fully – they just made the attempt.  Because before all had been said and done, and before the smoke was cleared, they failed to live up to the words!  Simon Peter proved that no one was above failure in discipleship.  Peter would have to pass through many trials before he achieved the great things for Christ which we know he did go on to achieve.

So fundamentally, it’s crucial that one must embrace Christ’s words, and then, ultimately, God’s grace through Christ’s salvific death that makes it possible for us to be successful in the end!  We must heed Christ’s words and take them to heart as well. Being a Christian in today’s world demands an authentic response from the heart.  Our saying Yes to Christ must be a deep-rooted choice, a habitual way of life.  We follow Christ because we think that being a Christian is the best way to live and the best way to reach our potential and to gain what is most important – our destiny of sharing eternal life with God.