As we can see in this gospel, it is difficult for many of the disciples of Jesus to grasp his teaching. Thus, some of them stop following him. Perhaps they thought that following Jesus could make their life easier and more comfortable, without problems. Instead, they find the opposite. To follow Christ is not always easy. This situation is experienced by all the disciples of Jesus, but only the group of the Twelve keep on accompanying Jesus. They still follow Jesus even though they don't know and understand well the teaching of Jesus. To the challenging question of Jesus,” Do you also want to leave?”, they are represented by Peter to respond in these words, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”
Sometimes, we may say that we follow Jesus, but instead, we follow our personal desires. We may prefer what is easier for us to do, and at the same time, we find it difficult to observe the will of God. We need to know that what Jesus asks us to do is not always easy. For example, if he asks us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, it will be difficult to accomplish it. No doubt, some of us may not continue to follow Jesus just because it is hard to do his will. However, others will do their best to do the will of God, because this is the only way leading us to the fullness of salvation.
It is sad to hear or know that many people leave the Church and stop believing in Jesus because they cannot understand the teachings of Jesus. Today’s gospel reminds each of us, as Christians, that we cannot understand fully God’s plan for us. It is always a mystery. In our life, we pass through many difficulties and challenges. Sometimes, we even ask why God let us experience many problems in our life. The only thing that keeps us following God is "Faith". We believe in God even though we do not understand. Our God continues to give us his grace helping us to understand his message. In this sense, St. Peter in today’s gospel is our model. Indeed, we should not go anywhere than to Jesus, who has the words of eternal life. We believe, and we are convinced that Jesus is the Holy One of God." He can never err us.
As Christians, we have to be like Peter; In spite of not understanding fully Jesus and his message, we must believe that Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever. Lastly, in order for us to strengthen our faith in Jesus as the living bread, we need to put his teaching into practice so that people may experience Jesus as the living bread through the way we live. Happy Sunday.
