The story is told about three priests who started discussing their common problem of how

to get rid of bats in their churches. Kuyapnit/ Paniki. The first priest said he once took an
airgun and fired at them, but to no avail. The second one said he trapped them alive and
released them outside, but they came back. The third priest said, he no longer had a
problem in his church. Asked how he solved it, he said: “I simply baptized them and
confirmed them, and I haven’t seen them in the church since then.”

We have this Filipino expression, “walang iwanan ha!” (Do not leave me, okay?), and this
basically asking the person you are speaking with to respond with their pledge of loyalty.
This is also the same to asking for a reassurance coming from our friends to stick it through
thick and thin until everything will be fine and done.

In our gospel today many of His disciples left Him and returned to their former lives and no
longer accompanied Him.  The Jews were so impressed by Jesus’ words and actions.
Wherever he went they were there to seek Him and listen to His teachings. but he started
talking about “eating His flesh and drinking His blood” as food for eternal life, they started
to leave Him because they could not accept this type of teaching. Is he a cannibal?
Witchcraft! So it is very hard for them to accept such teachings.

Jesus has so many sayings which could make His disciples leave Him like: “Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Kabudlay. “Forgive your enemies not only
seven times but seventy times seven times,” Again, kabudlay. “those who want to be the
first must be the last,” Kabudlay. ‘‘if you want to inherit eternal life sell everything, give it to
the poor and follow me,” Kabudlay.

It is easy to accept the teachings of Christ as long as they don’t go against us or as long as
we are not hit by it. Pero kun maigo na gane kita, when we are confronted with the realities
of our teachings, of the Gospel, we conveniently say, “Now the Church is meddling with our
lives!”Intrahan man ini nga simbahan.

That is why Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered
Him, “To whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life,” (vv. 67-68).

What St. Peter is referring to when he said that is about the word of God in the Bible. That is
why I will ask each of you here if you have a Bible in your home? If you have, are you
reading it or do you just put it in your cabinet and on top of your altar? Puno puno na sang
gapod. Kun imo gane ipaagi ang imo tudlo sa ibabaw sang libro, pwede kana maka drawing,
According to St. Jerome, “Ignorance of the Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

A story is told about a prisoner who was confined to a solitary confinement and was given a
Bible as his only companion. So he studied it very carefully for several years. Indi pa
available ang computer that time gane, he discovered the following facts about the Bible:
It contains more than 3 million letters; it has more than 750,000 words; it has more than
31,000 verses; it has 1,189 chapters. The word “and” occurs more than 45,000 times. The
middle verse in the entire Bible is verse 8 of Psalm 118. All the letters of the alphabet are
found in Ezra 8:21. The longest verse is Esther 8:9. The shortest verse is John 11:35. It is
the verse that says “Jesus wept”

Amazing! True enough, those were some of the amazing facts which that prisoner
researched out of the Bible. Pero wala gn hambal kung ang ini nga preso, natandog bala
sang mensahe sang biblie. Sang imbitasyon sang biblia.

The Mass is divided into the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In the
Liturgy of the Word, the Word of God is being proclaimed to us and applied us through the
homily given by a priest. In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we are offering now the Body and
Blood of Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Based on my own observation, many of us come late when we attend Mass. Usually when
the Liturgy of the Eucharist has already started. They missed the word of God. May ara
man, nga samtang ginabasa ang pulong sang Dios, nagalupad ang paino ino. Wala sang may
nababatian. So what happens, it is like we are watching a movie, we wait for the next show
and leave the movie house if we reach on the part where we started watching the movie.

My dear friends, the Word of God and the Body and Blood of Christ are important for our
salvation. We need them for our strength and we need them to keep that longing for eternal
life burning. But sometimes we take for granted either or both. Importante nakasimba.
Importante nakakalawat. Head level lang tanan. Wala na nagapanaog sa appreciation level
of why we are doing this celebration.

So my dear friends let us reflect more frequently on the Word of God and let it penetrate
into the deepest part of our hearts. Let us also receive the Body of Christ regularly as our
strength  in our day to day living. Para indi kita mag ilog sa mga kuyapnit na pagkatapos
bunyagan kag kumpirmahan, wala na nakabalik sa simbahan. Amen.