A Former Protestant Pastor, Keith Nester, who converted to the Catholic Church, recently said that “leaving the Catholic Church is a bad idea. Why? One of the reasons he said is “where else you are going to go?” One of the things that we believe as Catholics is that Jesus Christ is uniquely present in the Eucharist. It is in the Eucharist that we are in union with Christ. When you are leaving the Catholic Church, you are walking away from Jesus Christ who is present in the Eucharist.” Maybe we can also say, when you are leaving the Catholic Church you are rejecting Jesus who says, “I am the living bread from heaven, whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The bread I shall give is my flesh and I will give it for the life of the world.”

As we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we are invited to enter into a great mystery, in which Jesus is giving himself completely, pouring himself out for us without reserve. Jesus gives all. Eat, drink, this is my body, this is my blood…this is me for you. By offering his body and blood, Jesus wants to be our friend, our companion on our journey. In the Eucharist, we become one with Jesus. “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, live in me, and I in them.”

How can this be? This is also the question of the Jews in today’s gospel. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Well, this the story of God who wants to come close to us, so close that we can see him with our own eyes, hear him with our own ears, touch him with our own hands; so close that there is nothing between us and him, nothing that separates, nothing that divides, nothing that creates distance.” As God becomes fully present for us in Jesus, so Jesus becomes fully present to us in the Bread and the wine of the Eucharist.

If we continue reading the passage from today’s gospel, many disciples of Jesus withdrew because they can’t grasp the teaching of Jesus, who says “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it? Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So, Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Are you doubtful with the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist? Do you also wish to go away? Where else you are going to go? When you are walking away from the Catholic Church, you are walking away from Jesus who is fully present in the Eucharist. Indeed, leaving the Catholic Church is a bad idea. Hopefully, we have answered like the one of Simon Peter, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”