(Audio)
It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.
When we rely on human ways of thinking we limit our ability to accept what Jesus teaches. We say, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" Without the aid of the Spirit, the idea of someone giving his flesh and blood for food and drink is shocking. It is shocking to our flesh because it does not seem to be practical as a symbol but it doesn't make sense to us within the normal realm of scientific truth. After all, in that realm, what could this mean but some sort of invitation to cannibalism?
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
Jesus invites us to come higher up, to accept a new mode of thinking, and a new way of being. This is an archetypal moment, where the disciple who had followed Jesus closely enough until now is invited to beyond the limitations of his own fleshly way of thinking to accept Jesus and his truth in a new way. Jesus often calls us to a deeper conversion, a point where our flesh would rebel and turn back without the Spirit. The Spirit within us can connect to the Spirit in the words of Christ to bring us beyond the murmurs and the shock of our own thoughts that we often discover when he invites us higher.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Peter does not say, 'No worries LORD. We understand what you mean.' His flesh is similarly shocked and his thoughts are probably filled with murmurs. But he chooses to give voice to the invitation of the Spirit. He confesses that he doesn't get it either, but that he knows that the one who speaks is true. He will trust that. It is enough for him.
It is Spirit that allows individuals to accept Jesus. And it is the Spirit who works through each to build up the body of the Church.
She was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord,
and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit she grew in numbers.
The beliefs that seemed shocking are now a great consolation. The ability to trust in the Spirit instead of the flesh is the great secret of the early Church in Acts. Peter began to learn it before this, early in his walk with Jesus. He didn't always get it just right. But by allowing the Spirit to believe within him, responding to one invitation at a time, it gradually became a habitual response.
Peter said to him,
“Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed.”
The miracles that happened through Peter, including the healing of Aeneas and the raising of Tabitha, were not things that could have happened through one whose mind was still dominated by fleshly ways of thinking. Peter in Acts reveals a person utterly transformed who no longer thought first from his own perspective and only after considered the theological implications, but rather took Jesus and his Spirit at their word. Though it may be hard to believe, Jesus invites us to the same level of trust. He has mighty deeds for which he wants to use us, for which we will only be suitable if we learn the reversal Peter showed us: Spirit first, the natural and the human second if at all. It begins when we come to our own limits and manage to ask "Master, to whom shall we go?" And then to confess, "You have the words of eternal life."
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD
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