In last week’s homily, we talked a lot about the theology of the Holy Eucharist. We attempted to understand this profound mystery — this claim that Jesus actually really does give us His Body and Blood to eat and drink at every Mass.

“My flesh is TRUE food… and my blood is TRUE drink.”

And we concluded that this doctrine is either true or false.

So this situation presses us into making a choice, doesn’t it? 

What side of the fence will we come down on?

What is our response?

Yes, or no?

“Amen” … or no thanks?

And that is precisely where we find ourselves in the epic conclusion of Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse:

We have come at last to the moment of decision.

Will the disciples accept Christ’s strange and shocking teaching? …Or will they walk away?

And you can’t help but feel the tension. We all sense the struggle these people were going through. They saw the miracles. They knew that something amazing was going on… and yet “many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

Yes! 

This teaching on the Eucharist is hard… It demands everything from us.

But Jesus responds: “Does this shock you?” Is it shocking to you that I would have some hard stuff to say?

“The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. …But there are some of you who do not believe.”

And then comes John 6:66 —  “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

They stopped following him over THIS teaching.

It’s clear that the Holy Eucharist is where everything stands or falls. 

As I said in my homily last week — If we’re wrong about THIS, then we’re wrong about EVERYTHING. We’re worshipping bread, and we should’t believe anything the Catholic Church has to say…

But, that makes the opposite true, too!

If we’re RIGHT about the Holy Eucharist — if this really IS the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus — then that means the Catholic Church is RIGHT about EVERYTHING else that it teaches.

That means the whole Catechism is right.

Every moral teaching is right.

Every doctrine… is true.

…All of it is Real. Authentic. Trustworthy!

It is not proud to say this. We have received everything from the Lord. He has revealed all of this truth to us because He loves us and is so good to us. He wants us to know the Truth!

And if He has shared all of this with us, and if God can’t lie — then we really ought to receive it… We should say: “AMEN” — I trust You… It’s true. IT’S ALL TRUE…

This is what we’re doing each time we approach Holy Communion!

When the priest says: “The Body of Christ” and you reply: “Amen!” …you are making a decision in that moment. You are taking a stand. What you are really saying is:

“YES… I BELIEVE.” …I TRUST YOU JESUS.

…And therefore, we should make sure that our “AMEN” is REAL. 

We have a responsibility to make sure that our “Amen” is HONEST…

Because when we say “AMEN” to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, we are saying YES to everything Jesus is about…We are saying YES to everything He has revealed and taught and established.

And this includes:

The papacy.

The ordained ministries of bishops, priests, and deacons.

The entire Creed.

All of the sacraments.

All of the magisterial, authoritative dogmas and precepts of the Church.

All of the moral teachings…about marriage, about family, about human dignity…

Yes, even the hard stuff! Even the teachings that put us in direct contradiction with what the world is preaching…!

Therefore, the question is: 

Will we choose to stay?

Will we give our full “Amen?”

That’s the intense question that Jesus is asking us… just as he asked the Twelve apostles in the gospel:

“Do you also want to leave?”

As Msgr. Ronald Knox says: Jesus “knows the answer; why then does he ask?” It’s because… “He is not asking a question — he is throwing out a challenge. He is proving their loyalty, and giving them a chance to assert it.”

So Jesus is asking us:

Are you willing to follow me, regardless of the cost? Are you willing to be countercultural? Will you choose to stay even when being Catholic is inconvenient …or even… dangerous?

Because guys… I hate to break it to you — it’s only gonna get more and more difficult to be all in for Jesus. From here on out, we will need to go more and more AGAINST the grain, AGAINST the current if we really want to keep saying “AMEN” to the Lord.

Most of the world has already made up its mind: “This is a hard saying… who can accept it?” They have walked away. Some of them are our own family members. Some of them are our friends… our coworkers… our classmates…People we love.

What about you?

…Are you willing to stay?

Are you willing to say “Amen” to the Eucharist, and everything it means?

But of course, we can come to the Holy Eucharist with a half-hearted AMEN… a “partial Amen.”

We do this when we are resisting the Lord in some way…

When we come and receive communion while we’re living a lifestyle that is in contradiction to the one Jesus is inviting us to…

When we promote or support immoral ideologies and beliefs that the Church has already taught definitively on.

When we give only a partial “Amen” while receiving the Holy Eucharist, then we are holding Jesus at arms length.

The term “Cafeteria Catholic” comes to mind here —  This of course is when we pick and choose the doctrines and beliefs we want to agree with. We say AMEN to this bit of Catholicism… or to that aspect of spirituality…or to these moral teachings… but then we REFUSE to say “AMEN” “YES!” — to the whole.

I’m sorry…But this is not actually possible!

It’s not possible to divide up Catholicism and take only the pieces we like, while leaving other essential, interconnected, fundamental pieces…

Think about it this way:

It’s not possible to divide the Eucharist, and take only some of the pieces of Jesus that we want, right? Every crumb… every particle is the WHOLE Jesus!!!!

There is only ONE WHOLE Eucharist.

There is only ONE Bread… ONE Chalice.

When we receive the ONE WHOLE Eucharist…. When we say AMEN to the Body of Christ… we are saying YES to the whole SHABANG —  to the entire corpus of Truth… the BODY of Truth!!!! To say yes to the Eucharist is to be in COMMUNION with the WHOLE Jesus AND His entire Body, the Church… not just this or that part of Him.

“This is a hard saying… who can accept it?”

We might remember from our Bible that Saint Paul makes the condition for reception of the Eucharist pretty clear: “A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

We know — that Jesus loves us…He doesn’t condemn anybody. Jesus loves YOU… And He wants to feed you with His Body and Blood… but the reality is this:

The Eucharist won’t do us any good… in fact, it will actually become harmful to us! …if we don’t come and receive Jesus in the proper posture and condition of soul. Now this does NOT mean we have to be perfect in order to receive communion… but it DOES mean we need to be sincerely repentant… Sincerely open to everything Jesus intends for us…

Why?

Because… we want you to be able to say “Amen” to Jesus … the whole Jesus, don’t we?

This is why when we are conscious of having committed a potentially mortal sin, we should go to confession before receiving communion.

THIS is why the divorced/remarried… or those couples who were married outside the church… aren’t able to receive communion until their marriages are convalidated, or until they firmly resolve to live a chaste and continent life together.

This is also why our non-Catholic brothers and sisters aren’t able to receive Holy Communion at Mass… because they aren’t yet able to say “AMEN” to everything that we mean as Catholics when we say: “The Body of Christ.”

These are hard sayings, right?

Will you stay?

Or do you also want to leave?

I believe it’s the job of the Church’s shepherds to humbly and honestly bring these teachings and many others to your attention so that you can have the opportunity to say “yes” to Jesus. I don’t wanna sweep important truths under the rug or hide anything from you. That is not fair to you. That is not charitable. You deserve to hear what the Church teaches. 

I also happen to believe that the gates of Hell will never prevail against Jesus’ Church and that when it comes to faith and morals, the Church will never lead us astray. I believe that these words… these unchanging teachings… are Spirit and Life…

But here’s the thing — I can’t force anyone to believe.

I promise to try to persuade you… I also promise to pray for you… because I do believe the Truth will set you free. 

But you can always walk away if you want.

And that’s the epic risk, isn’t it?

It’s THIS risk that makes everything WORTH IT. 

It’s THIS risk that makes the Christian life so INTERESTING… so MEANINGFUL…so ADVENTUROUS…

“Do you wanna leave?”

What a thrilling question! Jesus is willing to ask it because He wants to give us a REAL chance to prove our loyalty! To take our stand! To rise up and say: “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

But let’s be absolutely clear:

Jesus doesn’t want anybody to leave the Catholic Church. 

His heart is sorrowful if we every would decide that something else is better or more important.

We know that the Most Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament of God’s Love for us and for the entire world.

When we look at the Eucharist, we see the Father’s love outpoured.

If that is so…  Then to leave the Eucharist, is to leave God’s Heart…

To not love the Eucharist is to not love Love. And this is painful to Our Lord… because God IS Love.

St. Francis of Assisi used to cry out all night in prayer: “Love is not loved! LOVE is NOT LOVED!”

So many are leaving Love behind…and this breaks Jesus’ Heart…

But… and this is so important… The Lord is not willing to bend the truth or pretend something isn’t true simply to string us along. 

That’s not how love works.

I’ll tell you what He will do, though:

He will be patient with us. He will forgive us for every mistake along the way. He will do everything He can to bring us back if we wander off. He will give us every opportunity and every encouragement that we need to say “AMEN” to Him…

But at the end of the day… at the end of our lives — We each have a decision to make don’t we?

Yes …or no. 

And he will respect our decision.

As our first reading from the book of Joshua put it: “Decide today whom you will serve.”

If we’re gonna serve Jesus and call ourselves Catholic, then we need to say with Peter and apostles:

“Lord 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.”

Lord, where else would we go? There is more than enough here…RIGHT HERE… to stay.

We want to stay here… with You.