Accompanying Jesus

Saturday night of the National Eucharistic Congress, one of the keynote speakers Jonathan Roumie, the actor who portrays Jesus in the series, The Chosen, was reading John Chapter 6, known as the Bread of Life Discourse.  This is a passage from scripture we’re read and heard hundreds of times.  But as he read this passage, one line in particular jumped out at me.  “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (John 6:66).  And then on Sunday during the closing mass, Cardinal Luis Tagle quoted this specific line in his homily.  So many people have walked this same path as those disciples did.

Whether it’s family members, friends, co-workers, classmates, or others from our community, we all know people who have left the Catholic Church and strayed from their faith.  We all know people who have returned to their former way of life and stopped accompanying Jesus.  One group I have seen this with is many people from high school who were really involved in their faith and participated in youth ministry.  They were at one point excited about their faith and active in the Church, and now don’t claim the same faith and belief in the same teachings they did at one time in their lives.  Maybe you have seen this happen with other people in your lives who were raised Catholic and were involved in their faith at some point only to have since walked away.  And then there are others who were never really invested in their faith in the first place who have left.

There are a lot of different situations and circumstances where we have seen people leaving the Church and for a variety of reasons.  Maybe they let the world convince them that their faith was in vain, or that it didn’t make sense, or that it was false.  Whatever the reasons for leaving, they let the world convince them that what it could offer them was greater than Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church.

Jesus has given Himself to us in the Eucharist.  And I firmly believe that if people knew and believed in His real presence, or had some sort of encounter or experience with Him, they could never walk away.
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So many people around us have left Jesus and His Church, walking away from the truth.  Jesus wants each and every single one of us to accompany Him and to stay close to Him.  But many have returned to their former ways of life.  This is where we have the task of sharing our faith and the truth of His teachings.  May we all share our faith experiences with others, giving witness to who Jesus is, what He has done in our lives, and how the power of the Eucharist has transformed us so that one day, all those disciples who left may return home and accompany Jesus again.