Quantum Leap

John 6:53, 60-69

So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’ Because of this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’

“Doing is a quantum leap from imagining. Thinking about swimming isn't much like actually getting in the water. Actually getting in the water can take your breath away. The defense force inside of us wants us to be cautious, to stay away from anything as intense as a new kind of action. Its job is to protect us, and it categorically avoids anything resembling danger. But it's often wrong.” (Barbara Sher)

Definition of quantum leap: “an abrupt change or step, especially in method, information, or knowledge.”  A quantum leap is not a change that occurs gradually over a continuous period; it’s sudden, like jumping off a cliff. In this Gospel, Jesus asked his followers to take a quantum leap and go beyond simply thinking and talking about what they believed in. He did not ask them to take their time and grow slowly into this knowledge; he challenged them to take a sudden a leap of faith into the unknown based on nothing - but him.

Thomas Merton says that communication and communion are two fundamentally different modes of knowing. Communication is a logical, linear and one-dimensional way of imparting information that leads up to a definite conclusion. Communion is a way of knowing that which can’t necessarily be verified or quantified using visible proof or logical argument. The Gospel this week is one that is very close to the heart of Catholic theology but even if you are not Catholic, you can ponder on the principle I’m going to write about in relation to any words of Christ in the Gospels because Jesus continually pushes his followers to take quantum leaps of faith and to experience the difference between communication and communion.

I want to ask you something, whether you’re Catholic or not: do you believe what you believe because it has always been part of your upbringing and your faith culture or do you believe it because at some point you had to take a quantum leap of faith? Did you ever look at the basic tenets of your faith and cry out, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” If you’ve never done that, I’m not sure if that’s something to be proud of or not. Quite often our beliefs come from what has been communicated to us by our parents and teachers but we have never allowed ourselves to examine our beliefs to the point where we either have to walk away or we have to take a quantum leap into the arms of a God we actually know nothing about but cannot live without.

In this week’s Gospel, the disciples are faced with a moment where they had to make a radical decision. Their options were:

(A) They could decide to walk away.

(B) They could decide to stay on the safe edge of a relationship with Christ, define that relationship by everything Jesus said and did but never seek for anything beyond what they heard and saw. They could create a safe world of rules and interpretations based on what they heard and saw and stay there indefinitely.

(C) They could decide to plunge themselves into the depths of mystery, a mystery that went far deeper than being aware of the outward actions of Jesus. This mystery required them to assent to go somewhere unknown - not a place that was familiar because they had always been there, not a place that was comfortable because a lot of people they knew were in that place, and not a place that made sense because they were totally familiar with the concepts within it. It certainly was not a logical place where everything had been discussed, clearly defined and written down. They were asked to take a step and make a commitment without knowing anything that could be verified or substantiated.

Jesus asked them, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ and at that precise moment they had to make a huge, life-altering decision. Peter’s reply, “Lord, to whom would we go?” was pure communion and it plunged Peter, as well as those who agreed with him, into the center of the mystery of relationship with Christ. In that one sentence, Peter identified Jesus as the heart of everything he desired and needed: the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the way, the truth and the life – the only way to go. In that one sentence, he said, “Yes,” to everything he knew absolutely nothing about. 

We can know in our heads all there is to know about our faith and we can consciously assent to all that knowledge. That’s communication. But it’s not communion. When Jesus asked his disciples if they too would leave, Peter had no doctrinal grounds for his reply. There was no theology of the Eucharist. There was no creed, no New Testament, no books filled with complex theology. Peter’s statement of faith had nothing to do with what he knew in his head. It was all about his heart and his heart said, “I have nothing if I do not have you. I will go with you wherever you go.”

The fact that Jesus lived on earth and died on a cross is a historically verifiable fact. All the factual information about his life has been communicated to us by scripture and by historical documents. But our hearts need more than that. His life and his death on the cross communicated his immense love for us but we need more than that knowledge. We need to be in communion with that love. We need to leap into it even though we have no idea where that leap will take us. The sad thing is that for many people, the Eucharist and other faith challenges Jesus presented have dwindled to being a linear communications. We can continue to receive and believe without challenging ourselves with the question Jesus posed to his disciples. We can live without ever fully jumping into the abyss, preferring to simply think about it.

What if we went up to receive the Eucharist and instead of saying, “The body of Christ”, the priest said, “Will you also go away?”

What a jolt that would be. If we are always remaining on the edge, staying behind the safety of what our heads know and only participating in linear communication rather than plunging into communion with the unknowable, Jesus has the right to wonder how far we’re willing to go. If we’re not taking the quantum leap of pondering all we think we know and then coming to the essential conclusion that we could never leave simply because - no matter where he may take us - we have nowhere else to go and he has everything we need and want, then we may be unconsciously keeping open the option to stop at a certain point and go no further.

Jesus said, “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh (which includes all the head knowledge stored inside our brains) is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Jesus was definitely challenging his disciples to take a huge leap of faith. He didn’t explain in a logical linear fashion what he meant; this wasn’t another one of his story parables. He knew his followers would not be able to intellectually grasp what he was saying because this was a moment calling them to heart communion not head communication. All he was asking was that they trust him, even though they had no idea what he was talking about or where he was taking them.

If you think you know exactly who God is, where he wants us all to go and what he wants us all to do – or think you should know these things – then you have not entered into communion with him.

Communion is not about knowing…it’s about leaping into the unknown wildness of the heart of God.