When Jesus told His followers that unless they ate His Body and drank His Blood, they could not have eternal life, large numbers left and never returned. Their initial repulsion to this direction was understandable: who would want to eat the flesh and drink the blood of another living human being?
Yet, many had come to believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. They had either heard of or actually witnessed countless miracles evidencing His Divine nature. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Why did they not realize that He would never ask the impossible of them or fail to provide them the means with which to fulfill His command?
His apostles had no greater understanding of, or fondness, for what Jesus was commanding them to do. But when Jesus asked them if they too would leave, Peter, answering for himself and for the other apostles save for Judas, replied: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
So they stepped out in faith, accepting this “difficult” teaching without fully understanding it. Their faith was rewarded at the Last Supper when Jesus, using the basic elements of a common meal - bread and wine – transformed the substance (but not the outward appearance of those items), into His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, gave them to His apostles to eat and to drink, and empowered His newly ordained priests and their legitimate successors to do likewise. This world has never been the same.
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