Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter

Lectionary: 275

But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

 A mericans have a predilection for seeing. "Seeing is believing!" we say. And, "Show me!" Many Catholics point to "Eucharistic Miracles" as visible proof of their faith; and some insist they have personally seen the Lord in the Eucharist, although they admit that those who were with him in the same church at the same moment, might not have seen what they saw. 

But faith comes by hearing, as Saint Paul said to the Romans: 

...how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?.

We might add, faith comes by hearing and believing in the One who speaks. When Jesus says, "This is my body," and "This is my blood," we are confronted with the choice of believing or not. But we cannot follow him if we do not believe him, as this sixth chapter of John demonstrates. 
Many of his disciples heard him insist, 
    "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." 

Some interpreters suppose they left because they wanted no part of cannibalism. I think they left because they would not surrender their entire lives to any "son of man." For all the world he appeared like any other human being. In fact, as Isaiah said, "He had no majestic bearing to catch our eye, no beauty to draw us to him." 

Regardless of their confidence in him as a political phenomenon or a charismatic Jew, their following was only a lark, a bit of adventure; and not an all-consuming commitment to belong to him as to God, body and soul for all eternity. 

We believe in Jesus because we have heard his voice and accept his word. We believe because we know this Man and, more importantly, he knows us.  As I read the Gospels I discover myself in his clueless disciples. Why did they follow him? Why have I followed him? (Fifty years ordained, I ask myself and that's the only answer I have!)
It was not their choice, or mine, as he says in the last verses of John 6: Did I not choose you twelve?" 

It was our acceptance of his choice. For which we are grateful. 

Someone might ask, "If he called you, why didn't he call everyone?" I have no idea, but I might reply, "That's not my business." I am not in a position to challenge the Lord with pointless, speculative questions; nor would I care to be. Saint Paul would reply, "How can they hear without someone to preach?"
And his explanation satisfies me: 

Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

In so far as it's been given to me, I understand Jesus's obedience because it is mine also.