Life is a mystery.  I think that most of us would agree with that simple statement.  We can spend our entire life trying to unlock that mystery and yet the full meaning and purpose of life eludes us.  The mystery of life is beyond our comprehension.  We can learn a lot about life over time and we can submit life to scientific analysis and yet there is always something more to life that escapes our understanding.  Even when we reduce life to its material components and to what we can directly experience we still fail to answer the questions that haunt our human existence.  

    There is more to life than meets the eye.  Life cannot be reduced to our mere material and human existence.  We naturally want to reduce it to something that we can understand but real life resists this reduction.  Real life is composed of matter and spirit.  As Jesus explains to Nicodemus in the third chapter of the gospel of John:  “Flesh begets flesh and spirit begets spirit.” (Jn 3,6)  We are born in the flesh and then born again in the spirit.  The flesh is passing but the spirit is eternal.  In the sixth chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus teaches his disciples:  “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.” (Jn 6,62)  Real life comes from the spirit.  We are not fully alive if we are not living a spiritual life.  

    The words that Jesus gives to us and the teaching that he shares with us opens a way into the fullness of life.  Jesus tells his disciples:  “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” (Jn 6,63)  The Word of God that is Incarnate in Jesus reveals to us the mysteries of life.  This life is a life in the Spirit.  It is a divine life.  It is an eternal life.  It is a life that comes down to us from heaven.  We are created with the capacity to share in the divine life and to enter fully into eternal life and to one day take our place with the saints in heaven.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  He has come among us to show us the Way that leads to an abundant and eternal life.  Only through him will we obtain entrance into the Father’s eternal kingdom.

    Jesus has given us a beautiful gift that will transform us and prepare us to share in the divine and eternal life of the Father.  This gift is spiritual and allows us to grow to the fullness of life in the Spirit.  This spiritual gift feeds our soul and allows the divine life to grow within us.  This gift is the gift of himself.  Jesus is the Bread of Life which feeds us and satisfies the hunger for life that is deep within us.  This Bread is truly the Flesh and Blood of Jesus.  Only in the Eucharistic Sacrifice can we receive this heavenly Bread.  The Eucharist is the Way into eternal life.  The Eucharist contains the mystery of life.

    This mystery of life is hard for our small and limited intellects to understand.  It is hard for us to accept things that we don’t understand.  John tells us that the disciples of Jesus struggled to accept the teaching of Jesus concerning the Bread of Life.  He tells us:  “Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, ‘This saying is hard; who can accept it?’” (Jn 6,60) and:  “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” (Jn 6,66)  In the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus sets before his disciples a way of life that will lead them to heaven, to eternal life and to a fullness of life here on earth.  Instead of embracing this way of life in faith, many of the disciples of Jesus return to a former way of life that is easier to accept but that will never satisfy their hunger for real life.  Their only excuse:  the way of Jesus is too hard.

    How many people in our world find the way of faith too hard for them to accept?  The way to the fullness of life is too hard and so they accept a former way of life that is easy and unchallenging.  When the way is hard, many people give up and quit following that way, even though they have been warned and counseled that it is the only way to real and eternal life.  Many people today leave the Church and no longer frequent the Eucharist because the demands of faithful discipleship are too difficult.  It is too hard for them to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.  It is too much to ask for them to place Jesus at the center of their lives and live in service to the love of our Lord.  The words of Jesus may be hard to comprehend and accept in faith but, as St. Peter recognized, they are the only words that lead to eternal life.  Jesus did not come from heaven with an “easy” button and he doesn’t want us to change the truth of his words to make things easier for people today.  Where else can we go?  There are lots of easier ways but only one way leads us to a share in the divine life and eternal life of the Father.  Choose wisely!