Daily Gospel Reflection for April 24, 2021

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Reflection by Leslie Lynch

Today's Gospel: John 6:60-69

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

This is the response of many who begged for “the bread of God…which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” a few minutes prior. Unable to accept that Jesus is the bread of life from God, unwilling to feed upon Him, many turned away.

A 2019 Pew poll told us that 2/3 of Catholics do not believe that Jesus is present in the Blessed Sacrament.

How can this be? What is the point of the Eucharist if Jesus is not present in it? If we only practice a symbolic recreation of the Last Supper, why bother? Why bother doing it every week?

Are you part of the 1/3 or the 2/3? If the latter, are you willing to let Jesus into your life in a deeper, more intimate way? Are you willing to learn, to research, to draw near? Are you willing to be open enough to question, and to allow your faith to evolve?

Receiving the Eucharist without believing its wholeness and unity with the body and blood of Jesus, poured out in sacrifice for us sinners, is, at best, an exercise in futility. It is a refusal of the graces offered: no less than a refusal to accept God’s best.

Is it so much of a stretch to believe that the God of the universe, the creator of all things seen and unseen, the author of time and space and grace, can come to us in this way?

Why deny your deepest need? We all long to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts. We all long for grace and forgiveness and the light of heaven on our faces.

Try believing next time you receive. Come to the banquet. Believe, and be fed by Love Himself.

Ponder:

If I truly believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, how does that change me as I receive Him?

Pray:

Come Holy Spirit! I do believe, help my unbelief!

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Copyright 2021 Leslie Lynch

Leslie Lynch lives near Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband and a rescued feral-turned-sweetheart cat. She’s written three full-length novels: Hijacked, Unholy Bonds, and Opal’s Jubilee; and two novellas: Christmas Hope and Christmas Grace. She is an occasional contributor to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis’s newspaper, The Criterion, and holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University. Connect with her at www.leslielynch.com