Reflection for May 7 Saturday of the Third Week of Easter: John 6:60-69

Gospel: John 6:60-69

Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.  

The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”  

As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

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Reflection:

When many of the followers of Jesus went back to their former way of life because they can’t believe His Bread of Life discourse. Jesus perhaps quite sad turned His attention to His twelve apostles and said to them: “Do you also want to leave (John 6:67)?” This is the million-dollar question that confronted the twelve apostles, “Do you also want to leave (John 6:67)?”  

For many of us the teachings of Jesus are actually hard to follow. For example His teachings about Humility. How many of us are still willing to offer the other cheek if we are hit on the other side(Luke 6:29)? 

 His teachings about fidelity to the Sacrament of Marriage. Are we still faithful or have we been faithful to our respective spouses? And there are many more teachings that Jesus wants us to follow but we don’t for the simple reason that we want to satisfy our earthly desires.  

It’s hard to follow Jesus because He will stir our lives according to what He wants it to become and not how we want to become. Jesus will turn our life upside-down, He will shake and disturb it until we are purified. And this is hard for many of us because we want to follow our own self-serving wants and sometimes immoral desires.  

But where would we go? We follow the dictates of the flesh and this sinful world? if this is so we then end up in hell, we will even taste and feel how it is to be in hell while we are still living in this world.    

it’s only through Jesus that we can have peace, that this world cannot give us and it’s only through Jesus that we can have eternal life. The things that we have right now are all temporary; we will leave it or it will leave us anytime. Therefore, we always have to be faithful to the Lord no matter the trials.  – Marino J. Dasmarinas