A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Our lord proclaimed aloud. Whoever puts faith in me believes not so much in me as in him who sent me. And whoever looks upon me is seeing him who sent me. I have come to the world as its light to keep anyone who believes in me from remaining in darkness.
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I am not the one that will condemn it. For I did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. However, whoever rejects me and does not accept my words already has his judge, namely, the word that I have spoken. It is that which will condemn him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own.
No. The father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. Since I know that his commandment means eternal life, whatever I say is spoken just as he instructed me. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. Praise to you, lord.
The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. You don't hear texts of this sort, and this could be multiplied, often referred to today by what I would call the fundamentalist. Now I have mentioned time to time that there are today a substantial number of Catholics who are leaving the practice of their Catholicism and going over to some fundamentalist group. Lieutenant colonel North is one of the outstanding and contemporary and notable examples, and he has plenty of followers.
You see, what has happened? They have lost entirely the conception of Christ, the savior, who founded a church which is the means, the way to salvation. That's what it boils down to. It's an attempt to bypass the church and to go directly to god. That has been tried.
The one thing I have to say about that is that's not the way Christ wanted it to be. Pure and simple. That's whatever we may think, that's not the way Christ instituted what he ever what he instituted, whatever that was. But what did Christ institute? On this rock I will build my church, and the Greek word is ekklesia, which means community.
And another thing, which our reading of Saint John, I I've asked you time and again to go back and read that gospel beginning to the end in one sitting because it's a tremendous argument. Because it's in this gospel of Saint John that we have our lord's powerful words about giving his body to eat and his blood to drink. And unless you eat my body, unless you drink my blood, you will not have life in you. He didn't say gather yourself around a table and read the New Testament and have a great palabra over it. Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you will not have life.
Now here's the here is the crunching argument. Because those who try to tell us that Christ didn't mean that, how do they answer this if they believe that Christ is the son of God? First of all, what was the reaction upon the people? The the hoi polloi, the vulgar crowd, what was their reaction? They left Jesus.
Who can believe it? I would have probably been among them. Who can believe such nonsense? Eating my flesh and drinking my blood, the man's a lunatic. Just as Lewis said, you can never say Christ was only a good man.
Then, our lord, what's the next step? Not only do the hoi polloi, the vulgar crowd leave Christ because they can't accept such nonsense as eating his flesh and drinking his blood, then his followers, that is his disciples, leave him. Does he put does he try to amend his words? Does he try to say, look, you people, don't be so thick headed. Don't be so dumb.
I didn't mean that literally. I'm not talking cannibalism as you're thinking. Don't be ridiculous. Use your imagination. Be with it.
Be contemporary. Be progressive. You understand what I'm referring to? They left him. Now what's the third step?
Christ turns to his chosen 12 and he says, will you leave me also? Who can say that? Now either Christ meant what he said or he didn't. And if he didn't, then I how can you call him a good man who talks such nonsense? But if he meant what he said, and if he's the son of God as he claimed to be, that's what put him on the cross, then what's your conclusion?
There's there's absolutely you have to agree with Christ. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in me in you. Where is Christ's body and where is his blood in the year 1988 of our lord? If you can't find it, you can't do it. You can't drink it, and you can't eat it.
And if that's true and if Christ meant what he said, then we're hopelessly sunk. On the other hand, if perchance, it still exists as Christ said it would, on this rock, I'll build my church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. I'll be with you until the end of time. Christ said it.
It's either God or he isn't. He either meant it or he didn't. Therefore, it must be around someplace. And you don't find Christ's body and blood sitting around the dining room table talking about the New Testament. But they'll tell us, well, that's figurative.
We mustn't take it literally. Alright. Then I say go and argue with Jesus Christ because he certainly meant it to be taken literally. And Vatican two says absolutely, unequivocally, the heart and core of Catholic worship is the holy sacrifice of the mass, which rests upon the fact that a man standing at that altar in the person of Jesus Christ, he doesn't say this is Christ's body, he says this is my body, can take bread and wine and transform it into the body and blood of the son of God. The name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Amen.