Page:Jesus of Nazareth the story of His life simply told (1917).djvu/254

 Jesus said to them: "I am the Bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall not hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst."

Wayward and fretful, they murmured at Him now because He said: "I am the Living Bread which came down from Heaven." And they said to one another:

"Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then saith He: 'I came down from Heaven?'"

Jesus answered and said to them: "Murmur not among yourselves I am the Bread of Life. If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever, and the Bread that I will give is My flesh for the life of the world."

The discontent and murmuring increased. It was a repetition of the scene in the synagogue at Nazareth, the same enthusiastic reception of our Lord, the same eager listening at the beginning of His discourse, the same indignation and rejection before the end.

"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" they asked.

Tens of thousands have asked this question since that day: "How can Christ be present whole and entire in the Host?" The answer is that we do not know how. Our Lord did not tell the Jews to understand the mystery, but to believe it, to believe Him who for years had been working among them the signs for which they asked, signs such as no other man had ever wrought. They ought to have believed His word and waited humbly to see how He would accomplish it. But instead of this many even of His disciples among the crowd said:

"This saying is hard, who can hear it?"