Last week I posted about the number one reason that I am Catholic. This reflection was based mainly on the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. While writing that piece I noticed a passage that has been swirling around in my brain ever since. I’ve thought about it a lot over the past four days. This is a reflection on those brain-sticky passages and not on today’s Gospel.
First, the passage:
Then many of his disciples 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…” (John :60-63)
This is a hard saying…
The disciples understood exactly what Jesus meant in this Bread of Life discourse. He did not leave any room for analogy, metaphor, or misunderstanding. Over and over He tells His hearers that they must eat and drink His flesh and blood.
No wonder then that the disciples, and many others, say aloud or in their hearts, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Yet, the most sticky passage is this, “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.“
A different way of thinking
Here, again, Jesus is trying to train His disciples, and us, to stop thinking as man thinks. Man wants signs and wonders, miracles and otherworldly happenings. God works quietly, patiently, and often, most often, in hiddenness.
In this 6th Chapter of John alone we can see the fickleness of men. This chapter is filled with both mentions of Jesus’ miracles and actual miracles…
And a multitude followed him, because they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased. v.2
So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!” v. 13-14
When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat. v.19
Miracle after miracle, sign after sign and still, it is not enough. Man wants more and no matter how many times Jesus works miracles of healing, feeding, walking on water; man still wants more. Truly, “…the flesh is of no avail”. No amount of miracles will change the heart, only the Spirit can do that!
Miracles today
Even in our day miracles happen. There are miracles of healing attributed to Jesus working through His saints. There are miracles of people being saved from eminent danger. There are Eucharistic miracles and saintly apparitions.
Yet, the most powerful miracles; those miracles that change the hearts of men and lead them closer to the Lord, are most often unseen. They are the miracles of conversion from spiritual death into life. It is the addict who gets clean and gives her life to God. It is the atheist who is open to truth and truth enters his heart. It is the porn star who learns that the flesh is of no avail and turns her life over to Christ. It is the wayward son who, through the prayers of his mother and father, returns to the faith of his youth and becomes a priest or devout husband and father himself.
God’s most powerful miracles are subtle, quiet, and hidden. These miracles are the ones that change hearts, families, and generations. Today the Church celebrates Our Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun. Thousands of people, believers and non-believers witnessed this miracle. It was on the front page of newspapers. Yet the real power of this miracle came from hearts that were changed. It came from the conversions, those who amended their ways, led their families in faith and prayer, and changed the course of Faith unto this day.
The miracle of the Eucharist
God works in mysterious, hidden ways. The most mysterious, hidden way being that of the Eucharist at each Mass. Would more people believe if the consecration was accompanied by celestial trumpets, the host turning to blood dripping flesh, or the priest levitating as he raises the host? Perhaps, for a time. As I mentioned in the previous post, human nature and sin will always rush in to fill in the gap in a relationship. This is true for many even after witnessing a physical miracle. The flesh is of no avail, it is the Spirit that gives life…and changes hearts.
This weakness and the faith needed to overcome it is mentioned beautifully in St. Thomas Aquinas’ hymn Tantum Ergo Sacramentum:
Tantum ergo Sacramentum
Veneremur cernui:
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui:
Præstet fides supplementum
Sensuum defectui.
Genitori, Genitoque
Laus et iubilatio,
Salus, honor, virtus quoque
Sit et benedictio:
Procedenti ab utroque
Compar sit laudatio.
Amen.
Down in adoration falling,
Lo! the sacred Host we hail;
Lo! o’er ancient forms departing,
newer rites of grace prevail;
faith for all defects supplying,
where the feeble senses fail.
To the everlasting Father,
and the Son who reigns on high,
with the Holy Ghost proceeding
forth from Each eternally,
be salvation, honor, blessing,
might and endless majesty. Amen.
“…faith for all defects supplying, where the feeble senses fail.” Our senses are feeble. They are weak, easily tricked, and in many cases not to be trusted explicitly. “What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?” What if you were to see the lame walk, the blind see, the dead rise, the mute speak, water turned to wine, the hungry fed, the Lord walk on Water, the Lord rise from the dead, the Lord ascend into Heaven? All of this is well and good, perhaps even a bolster to faith, but ultimately it is the Spirit that gives life and His words, “This is my body, this is my blood” are words that are spirit and life – simple, direct, humble, and hidden. I would expect no less nor no more from the Lord who humbled Himself to be with me forever.
James M. Hahn, Author 