“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.†(John 6:68) St. Peter said these words to our Lord right after many of Jesus’ followers choose to leave His side after he taught about the Eucharist. I could guess that much grief went through the heart of Jesus on that day to see many of his brothers and sisters turn from Him and along with Him, the path to eternal life.
I find that this moment, this encounter with Christ, where we are standing before Him with one foot walking away and another trembling too much to even move is an experience that every Christian must and will go through. For the time being (this post) I do not plan on attempting to prove that Jesus is truly present in the Holy Eucharist (that could wait for another post), but to offer some thoughts on the response of Peter verses the response of those who walked away.
Each day we are all faced with choices. Choices are so important in life. The choices we have made have formed us into the men and women we are today. And the choices we make from now on will continue to form us. There are good choices and there are bad choices. Do I go to class today? Do I care about my health? Do I skip Mass this Sunday? Do I smile when I am having a bad day? Believe it or not, to love is a matter of the will, we must choose to love.
Let’s go back to Peter and dive deep into what might be going on in his head. There were hundreds maybe even thousands of people walking away from the Good Lord that day. Peter had come to love the Lord and trusted him. I could see Peter taking a big sigh, looking around at the other 11 with his eyes in a confused daze. He probably had a list of other people in his head, people that had made a difference in his life that he was going through wondering if it would be better for him to leave Jesus also and find a new teacher. But good hearted Peter realized that who it was that stood before him was more than a carpenter’s son, but the Christ.
Peter was searching for a person, who he knew had wisdom far surpassing that of any other mentor he had ever had before. He looked at Jesus, maybe tears were in his eyes, and in a soft voice said, “Lord, to whom shall we go.†It is this consistent response of Peter throughout his entire life that makes him a saint among men. Peter was no better than any of the other men that stood with Christ that day. He was a great sinner just like any of them. But what made Peter different was that fact that he realized that he could continual come back to Jesus, in his weakness, and fall before him asking for the strength he needed to make it through each day.
I sometimes think about how Peter would have celebrated the Mass. How wonderful his gaze would be upon our Lord’s body as he held the Lord in his weak but consecrated hands. “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.†I then think about if any of those people that left Jesus that day and attended a Mass with St. Peter. I wonder if they saw him and found great hope, because this simple fisherman found strength in the Eucharist. He found strength in eating Jesus flesh and drinking his blood.
Those who left Christ that day were trying to find strength in their own weakness, instead of knowing their own weakness and finding strength in the Good Lord Jesus. We all stand before the Lord each day and will be asked, “Will you leave also?†We will either find ourselves walking away from the love of our life or standing before him, with tears in our eyes, exclaiming with a soft voice, “To whom shall we go? You have the word of eternal life?†And that is what we seek. That is what we are made for. St. Peter, pray for us, that we too may be saints!
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