In his classic short story “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde grotesquely illustrates Christ’s final point in this gospel: There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.
Some in the crowd now wonder if they haven’t been following a madman rather than a prophet, a healer, a miracle-worker. Just like that, his sayings HAVE proven too hard for some of his followers.
Clearly, even with a divine teacher, education is a two-way street. Jesus does the teaching, but we must do the learning. We are the children of God… not the robots of God. Jesus does not program us. He reveals the will of God. He embodies the love of God. And we have free will to reject or embrace these teachings.
If there’s something that you have hoped would just go away, something you would rather not mention to God, this might be a good time to recognize it and remind yourself that every single thing about you is redeemed and loved.
How do I find the Incarnated One, the Christ? I need look no further than the hot pink petal of the flower on my desk, remember the face of the person who gave it to me. Christ is in that, of that. At the level of our greatest authenticity, there he is.
In Jesus we have found the real God Particle. But there is still so much more to know about the genius that created all and the love that redeems all.
John 6:35, 41-51 This gospel reminds us of a good thing we can never get enough of… the endless feast of love that is life
In Christ we are not separate individuals experiencing something that is strictly private and unique to us. The Bread of Life is not an individual a la carte offering that we get to pick and choose. It is a common feast that unites us.
The feeding of the multitude and Jesus’s path across the stormy seas are told as one story for a reason. On one side of the sea the multitude is fed and on the other side of the sea Jesus is revealed as one who transcends limits. In between is the sea filled with our confusion, our doubt, our insistence that we not be shaken too much in our understanding
John 6: 1-21 In a world starving for fulfilment, Jesus sets a table of love every day. Yet the bread of life is passed over