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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me say things clearly so people don't misunderstand what I mean. Amen!

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven," Jesus said. "The bread that I give you is myself, and if you eat it, you'll live forever." The people got angry. "How can He give us Himself to eat?" they asked. Jesus answered: "If you don't eat my body and drink my blood, you will have no life in you."

"Are you enjoying the summer and excited about school starting?" an adult asks. "Yes!" you answer -- but you're only answering "yes" to the part about summer. You aren't as excited about school. If the adult misunderstands, he or she may think you're eager for the summer to end!

This week's Gospel (John 6:51-58) is about a misunderstanding like that: Jesus tries to explain the Eucharist to people, but they don't get it.

Jesus loves us so much, He wants us to become as close to Him as we possibly can. One way to do that is praying; another way is by going to church and receiving communion. We understand this now because the practice of receiving the Eucharist isn't new -- but back when Jesus was introducing the idea to people, it was hard for them to understand.

In fact, like you talk about summer and an adult thinks you're talking about school, people heard Jesus talk about "eating my body and drinking my blood" and thought, "We can't eat a person! He's nuts!" They didn't understand that He would share bread and wine that would become His body and blood, even though they'd still look like bread and wine.

Then Jesus mentioned eating His body and living forever, and they misunderstood so much that some people stopped following Him. They didn't understand that He meant living forever in heaven.

If we don't receive communion, we're not as close to Jesus as He wants us to be. People can misunderstand a lot of things, but Jesus was pretty clear about that![[In-content Ad]]

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