Dear Friends in Christ

The liturgy of this Sunday turns our recent reflections on the Blessed Eucharist to a final consideration of what Jesus is offering us as the Bread of Life. However, after this teaching in the synagogue in Capharnaum many of His disciples abandoned their Master because they found the teaching about the mystery of the Eucharist difficult to accept. Jesus is left with only His closest followers who know that His Word is life; there is no one else they can go to; no one else who can give them this. We have also said Yes to Jesus and His teaching even if throughout our lives we struggle to make sense of many things. God has chosen us and we have responded and continue to respond in freedom. Like those disciples who reaffirmed their full adherence of Christ in Capharnaum, we have to continually make that affirmation of faith. It isn’t a question of simply saying it once; each day and many times each day we need to affirm that Christ is the Holy One of God, that He alone has the message of eternal life. That is why our Sunday participation in the Mass is of paramount importance: we gather as the Family of God and make our profession of Faith. It is then on the food of God’s Word and Christ’s Body that we are sustained and can continue our pilgrim way, secure in the knowledge that we are children of God.

May God bless you!

Msgr Kevin Hale