From last week:

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,

“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them,

“Amen, amen, I say to you,

unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,

you do not have life within you. 

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood

has eternal life,

and I will raise him on the last day. 

For my flesh is true food,

and my blood is true drink.”

From this week:

As a result of this,

many of his disciples returned to their former way of life

and no longer accompanied him.

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.”

This was some controversy! Many, and I think the scriptures imply most, of the disciples stop following Jesus because of his words. I think it is important to notice that Peter in his response to Jesus’s question does not affirm full understanding and adherence to what Jesus has said about his flesh being true food and his blood being true drink. That probably, chronologically, did not come until after the last supper, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and even the Pentecost event. A true apprehension of the belief in Jesus’s presence in the Eucharist was a gift of the Holy Spirit. Instead, at this point, Peter’s response is a belief in the one who spoke those words. His belief, and that of the apostles, is not a strict adherence to doctrine, but a relationship of trust in the one who speaks the truth. The apostles remain faithful to Jesus even if they don’t fully comprehend and believe that which he teaches. They trust in him! To whom shall they go?

This is instructive for our own journey of faith and the nature of our faith community. Many of us, or most, may not fully comprehend all of the Church’s teaching or we may question certain doctrines. Questions are not evil or even inappropriate. Questioning is a path of growth. The real question is about our trust in Jesus when we may not fully understand or accept his teaching. It is about our relationship with Jesus in the midst of our hesitation and uncertainty. Do we or can we trust him in this moment and beyond the horizon of our current understanding or adherence to his teaching. Are we willing to engage, like the apostles, or do we turn away?

Peter ultimately expresses a belonging to Jesus despite the difficulty of his teaching. It echoes, in some sense, through the father of a boy possessed by a demon who proclaims in Mark’s Gospel, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” We are a community of those who belong to Jesus. Even with our imperfections and questions, we are the beloved of God. It is that fundamental belonging that is our identity. We trust in Jesus. To whom else shall we go?