Hey, everybody. This is Father John Ricardo with Acts 29. And in the middle of all the craziness

and the uncertainty that's going on right now, it seems from our perspective as a team that it's

worth using these days to reflect in a more deliberate way on the scriptures every day, which

for many of us now is the only spiritual food that we're receiving. And so we're going to do a special podcast series simply entitled,

Be Not Afraid, God's Word in Uncertain Times.

And we'll try to post something every day, usually reflecting on the scriptures,

so that we can listen in on what God is trying to say to us in these days.

Do you and I have faith?

Or do we just happen to believe a bunch of Christian things?

That's the question that's in my mind this morning,

as I continue to reflect on the gospel that we have today, the

conclusion of this all-important sixth chapter of John, where Jesus has been teaching us,

especially in the last couple of days, about the extraordinary gift that is himself in the

Eucharist, hidden under the appearance of bread and wine.

The gift of himself, which he told us yesterday, is real food and real drink,

and that unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we have no life in us.

Today's gospel begins with many of his disciples who were listening to this saying to Jesus

in response to his words about the Eucharist.

This saying is hard.

Who can accept it?

That word that's translated there is hard.

That's got lots of different understandings, right?

...