This Teaching Is Difficult

“This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”

That’s the question posed by Jesus’ listeners in today’s Gospel from John. Sometimes the disciples’ questions and comments are clumsy, revealing their pride or lack of judgment. But in response to Jesus’ words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, today’s question is reasonable: “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”

And it echoes other genuine questions in the Gospels: “[Jesus said,] ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ [The disciples] were greatly astounded and said… ‘Then who can be saved?’”[1]

“[Jesus said,] ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit…. The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said… ‘How can these things be?’”[2] 

“[Jesus said,] ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.’ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’”

If you’re occasionally perplexed by Jesus’ words– indeed, if you’re left scratching your head at Holy Scripture in general– you’re not alone. Even those who walked with Jesus struggled to grasp the meaning of these sacred stories and teachings, let alone we who are obliged to fumble through them 2,000 years later. This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?

I’m reminded of an episode in Timothy Egan’s A Pilgrimage to Eternity, the record of his 2017 trek along the Via Francigena between Canterbury and Rome. Like any ancient pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena is dotted with legends, one of which Egan and his daughter, Sophie, encounter as they cross the Alps into Italy:

[Excerpt from pp.221-3]

“Are Catholics required to believe this stuff?” Sophie’s question is sincere, and it gets at the heart of our struggle as modern people of faith: “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”

Friends, the good news is that faith is not finally a set of ideas to grasp, but a path to follow. And God doesn’t send us out on an empty stomach, but gives us what Timothy Egan calls “bread crumbs of epiphany along the way.”[3] Not the least of these for Christians is the weekly meal we share in communion with Christ and with each other. “Whoever eats me,” Jesus says, “will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” So take bread for your journey again today, knowing that the journey will sometimes be a struggle. And trust that in the company of Christ it will be a pilgrimage to eternity.

[1] Mark 10:25-26.

[2] John 3:5-9.

[3] 327.