Today we come to the end of the 6th chapter of John's gospel where Jesus tells his disciples that he is the Bread of Life, the true source of all spiritual nourishment. To 'eat' this Bread is to absorb totally the whole meaning of Jesus' life and teaching and make it part of themselves. Jesus then had gone further and told them they could do this by eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood. Through this eating and drinking the Spirit of Jesus becomes our Spirit. However, we see that many of Jesus' disciples were quite shocked by his words. For a Jew, especially, the idea of drinking blood was abhorrent. They understood the words as a literal demand physically to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood. Jesus' words were not to be taken literally (that would be cannibalism!) but he intended a real, a genuine, intimate union between all that Jesus is and ourselves. And so, we are told that some of his disciples could not take this teaching and left him. Finally, Jesus turns to the Twelve: "Do you want to go away too?" Peter, answering in the name of all of them, replies: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life; we know that you are the Holy One of God." It is a response of total commitment to following Jesus. Let us make it too, even though from time to time we may fall - as Peter did.