Gospel Reflection For The 19th day of April in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Gospel
John 6:52-59
52 If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. 53 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 54 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. 55 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.
56 For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. 57 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. 58 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. 59 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.
This was the teaching that scandalized the Jews. Jesus said, plainly and repeatedly, that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Is it any wonder they believed Him to be insane? But, He is God and He can do what we cannot understand or even imagine. How many believe in the Trinity, which is only vaguely mentioned in the Bible and is a mystery too deep for human understanding, yet reject the plain words of Christ? I can’t begin to tell you how many. Although most Christians believed in the Real Presence in the Eucharist up until the time of Martin Luther, very few do now. Certainly, this was a “hard teaching” but it was stated and believed by the early Church. It was the doctrine to which all but heretics adhered until the so called, Protestant “Reformation.” Even Martin Luther, admitted that his attacks against the Eucharist were inspired by Satan. But, all Protestant denominations… thousands of them, consisting of millions of people in each generation reject the plain and true teachings of our Lord. They believe in Jesus, but reject His teachings. Unfortunately, so do far too many Catholics.
Protestants may be forgiven by God, in His mercy, if after so many generations of heresy they were never taught the true meaning of the Eucharist. That matter is in God’s hands. I hope and believe that God in His mercy will acquaint them with the reality of Purgatory so that they will have the chance to learn and believe the Truth. I hope that is not presumption on my part. Presumption is a sin against the Holy Spirit. It was presumption and arrogance that led Martin Luther into heresy and made him an enemy of Christ and His Church.
I do know though, that my Protestant grandparents and great grand parents were very devout people who had never been taught Catholic doctrine. Had they been told the truth about Catholicism, I am sure they would have converted, as did I. They were only taught lies about Catholicism and I was entirely ignorant about Catholic belief and doctrine until I was in college… when I began to read about Catholicism due to the obvious lies I was being told by Protestants. Their dishonest myths were simply so outrageous that I could no longer believe them. For instance, they told me that Catholics were not allowed to read the Bible and worshiped the pope. I didn’t know much about Catholicism, but I knew enough Catholics to know that this was false. That was hard to accept, but the realization that what I was being taught was untrue led me to seek the Truth. I found the Truth in the Catholic Church. Everything the Catholic Church believes and teaches is in absolute accord with the Bible, history, tradition, logic, sound doctrine and theology. The more I learned about Catholicism, the more obviously flawed and false Protestant belief and doctrine became.
This was especially true in the plain teachings of Jesus on the Sacraments, such as we read in today’s Gospel. If you believe the words of Jesus in the Bible, you must believe in the only Church that teaches the same and fulfills His mission in administering those Sacraments. Any Protestant, if he is honest, must accept that and convert once he realizes the truth. That so few do is a true shame. But, what is absolutely tragic and shameful is a Catholic who is catechized, but refuses to believe the words of our Lord and the teaching of His Church.
A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass readings January-June, 2024. may be purchased as a .pdf directly from me using this link https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-daily-catholic-devotional-reflections.html or in paperback on Amazon amazon.com/dp/B0CPD1DC7Q
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Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.