Gospel of John, chapter 6:68

In the movie Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye is a Jewish dairy farmer, living with his wife and five daughters in Russia. It is a time of change and revolution for Tevye, especially in the relationship between the sexes.

First, one of his daughters announces that she and a young tailor have pledged themselves to each other, even though Tevye had already promised her to the village butcher. Initially, Tevye will not hear of his daughter’s plans, but he finally has a dialogue with himself and decides to give in to the young lovers’ wishes. A second daughter also chooses a husband for herself, an idealistic revolutionary. Tevye is disappointed but after another conversation with himself, he again concedes to the changing times. Then Tevye’s third daughter falls in love with a young Gentile, a non-jew. This violates Tevye’s deepest religious convictions. Once again, he has an argument with himself. He knows that his daughter is deeply in love, and he does not want her to be unhappy. Still, he cannot betray his deepest religious convictions. “How can I turn my back on my faith, my people?” he asks himself. “If I try and bend that far, I’ll break!” Tevye pauses and begins a response: “On the other hand…” He pauses again, and then he shouts: “No! There is no other hand!” If he breaks with his tradition, he feels he would be without direction for that would be giving into a destructive relativism. Although Tevye was speaking about human traditions, there is a similarity between his attitude and that of St. Peter in today’s scripture.

The declaration of faith by St. Peter in Jesus, reminds us that in the deepest matters of faith, we come to a point where we discover that there is no other hand, no other option to consider.

Jesus was teaching his followers about the Eucharist; namely, that he would continue his presence among them in the form of bread and wine. His followers could not make sense of this. Did he think they were cannibals who eat human flesh? That was not the point, of course. Jesus was giving His disciples a new sacrament in bread and wine whereby He could be in them and they could be in Him. Failure to appreciate this mystery of communion plunged Jesus’ followers into a crisis of faith. Many of them responded by turning away from Him, so Jesus asked His most intimate followers: “Do you also wish to go away?” Peter answered for the group, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

St. Peter probably had as much difficulty with the idea of eating flesh and drinking blood as those who left, but the critical difference lay in Peter’s acceptance of the mystery of the Eucharist. He was not prepared to give up following Jesus because of his difficulty with the mystery. The other followers probably thought of Jesus as one teacher among many. If you disagreed with His teaching you could shop around for another teaching you agreed with. Peter, on the contrary, saw Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. He saw that it was better to follow Jesus even with cloudy comprehension than to abandon His example of unconditional love. Thus the Eucharist which makes present at Holy Mass Jesus’ atonement for sin on the cross; and which also makes possible our communion with Him and with one another; is aptly described as “the source and summit of the christian life.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no 1324)

Fr. Hugh Duffy

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