Friday, August 24, 2012

To Whom Shall We Go


Last evening as the sun was setting.
The end of chapter six of John's Gospel is almost heartbreaking.  Jesus has offered himself as the fundamental sign of God and gone even further in offering himself in the signs of bread and wine.  Some of the crowd have turned away.  Now some of the disciples find it hard to accept and stop following Jesus.  Jesus is not turning out to be the Messiah they thought he was.
It must have hurt Jesus terribly that even some disciples would leave him.  He turns to the Twelve and, in what must have been a plaintive voice, asks, "Will you also go away?"
Peter, ever the spokesman for the Twelve, assures Jesus, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life."
God and Jesus don't always meet our expectations of what they should be or do.  The leadership of the Church is often a disappointment.  Some of us may be tempted to follow no more.
But there is nowhere I would find more satisfaction.  My response is the same as Peter's, "Lord, to whom shall we go."

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