Pope Francis Homily May 2, 2020 The first Reading begins: “The Churches throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up, living in the fear of the Lord, and filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit, and growing in number” (Acts 9:31). A time of peace. And the Church grew. And Church was calm and serene, it had the comfort of the Holy Spirit, the consolation. They were beautiful times… This was followed by the healing of Aeneas, and then Peter raises Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, from the dead. Things that are done in peacetime. But there were times that were not peaceful, in the early Church: times of persecutions, difficult times, times that put believers in crisis. Times of crisis. One such moment of crisis is recounted today in the Gospel of John (see 6:60-69). This passage from the Gospel is the end of a series that begins with the multiplication of the loaves, when they wanted to make Jesus king. Jesus goes to pray, and the next day they can’t find Him; they go to look for Him and Jesus reproaches those who seek Him because they are looking for something to eat instead of the bread of eternal life. And this whole story finishes here. They say to Him, “Give us this bread”, and Jesus explains that the bread He will give is His very own body and blood. “At that time, some of them said, ’This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ ” (v. 60). Jesus had said that those who had not eaten His body and His blood would not have eternal life. Jesus also said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day” (see v. 54). These are the things Jesus said. “This is a hard teaching” (v. 60), the disciples think. “It is too hard. Something isn’t right. This man has gone beyond the limits”. And this is the moment of crisis. There were moments of peace and moments of crisis. Jesus knew that the disciples were murmuring among themselves. There is a distinction here between disciples and apostles. There were the 72 or more disciples, whereas the apostles were the Twelve. Jesus “had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray Him” (v. 64). And in the face of this crisis, He reminds them: “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them” (v. 65). He speaks again of being drawn by the Father, that the Father attracts people to Jesus. And this is how the crisis is resolved. And after this, “many of His disciples left Him and stopped going with Him” (v. 66).
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