(Twentieth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on August 17, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read John 6: 51-69.)

"When the message contains the truth, we should never change it--even if the majority says that we should!"

Here’s one of the many lessons contained in today’s gospel passage: We should never change the message. When the message contains the Truth, we should never, ever change it--even if the majority says that we should. This lesson comes to us this morning courtesy of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

For the last few weeks, our Sunday gospel readings have been taken from John, chapter 6--a very important section of Scripture. Here Jesus gives his famous "Bread of Life Discourse." He tells the people that he intends to give them his flesh and his blood for their spiritual nourishment. As he says in verse 51, "I myself am the living bread come down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever. The bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." Now at this point the crowd gets extremely upset with the message. Up until now, they’ve been only mildly upset. But here’s where they draw the line. To put it in colloquial terms, they begin to "freak out." They start to quarrel among themselves, saying, "How can he give us his flesh to eat?" It was a radical idea--and they knew it.

Please notice how Jesus responds to their objections. But first take note of what he does not do--he does not change the message! He is well aware that people are not accepting it; he’s well aware that people are getting upset with him--but his message is the Truth, so he doesn’t soften it in any way. In fact, he does just the opposite--he restates it even more forcefully. Beginning in verse 53 he says, "Let me solemnly assure you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you. He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise him up on the last day. . . . " And on and on he goes for several more verses. I should also mention that the Greek word St. John uses in this section for "feeds" ("He who feeds on my flesh," etc.) is not the normal Greek word for eating. Rather it’s a Greek word that means "to munch" or "to gnaw." It’s a very realistic word. St. John, who heard Jesus say these things, obviously wanted to make it very clear that Jesus meant exactly what he said: that people would literally be able to consume his flesh and his blood.

Sadly, St. John tells us that after Jesus gave this instruction, many of the people who had been following our Lord previously "broke away and would not remain in his company any longer." They wanted Jesus to change the message, but he refused.

I mention this today because we live in a world that wants the Church to do the very same thing. We live in a world that wants the Church to change the gospel message, especially as it applies to current moral problems. And so some will say, "The Church needs to get with the times. The Church needs to change her position on abortion and artificial contraception, and active homosexuality, and pre-marital sex, etc." And usually these individuals will try to support their assertions by pointing out how many people disagree with the Church; or by pointing out how many people fail to live the gospel message. For example, they’ll say, "The Church should support the distribution of condoms because, after all, some young people are going to do it anyway."

Is it a coincidence that the Church remains clear and absolutely consistent on these issues? Not at all; that’s exactly what we should expect. The Church speaks with the authority of Jesus Christ himself, and Jesus was always consistent. John 6 illustrates that beautifully: When many of his friends and supporters walked away from him at the end of the Bread of Life discourse, shaking their heads and saying, "This sort of talk is hard to endure. How can anyone take it seriously!", Jesus did not call them back. He did not say, "Wait a minute now, I was just kidding." He loved them too much to start telling them lies. Jesus knew that the answer was not to change his message, because his message contained the Truth. The answer was for the crowd to let the message of Jesus change them. Not surprisingly, that’s also the answer for us today: We need to allow the message of Jesus, which comes through his Body the Church, to change us. Let us pray at this Mass that this necessary change will occur in many, many hearts throughout the world.