On this 21^st Sunday in ordinary time, following the desertion of Jesus in today’s gospel from John chapter 6 verses 60 -69 by many of his disciples, the twelve stood by him offering him their undying loyalty. Since the event of the multiplication of the loaves and the subsequent feeding of the five thousand in the beginning of chapter 6 of Saint John’s gospel, Jesus used this incident to teach extensively the crowd following him about the Eucharistic meal. Describing himself as the bread of life given by God for the life of the world, Jesus teaches that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood we do not have life within us. 

The crowd that followed him when he first taught them about the Eucharistic meal was five thousand and in today’s gospel, we learned that because of their inability to comprehend his thoughts and teachings most of them abandoned him and returned to their old ways and he was left with only 12 people. Turning his attention to the 12 people Jesus asked them, do you also want to leave? One of them Simon Peter professed his unflinching loyalty by responding on behalf of the rest, “Master, to whom shall we go, you have the message of eternal life we have come to believe that you are the holy one of God” (Jn 6:68). Peter’s response is his confession of faith and an undying allegiance of a convinced disciple because he is convinced that Jesus is the one sent by God through whom we will all attend eternal life.

Dear friends, today’s gospel reminds us that God has bestowed on us the gift of free will which enables us to reason and to choose between right and wrong. While we are baptized Christians, we still have to make conscious decision to choose to remain Christians. It is important to know that among those who have problems understanding this message are disciples of Jesus and members of the community of believers. Sometimes we may like them find ourselves in a similar situation. May Peter’s conviction be a source of encouragement and guidance for us to accept that it is Jesus who has the message of eternal life and no other. 

Fr Vincent Nnatuanya CSSP