There are times in each person's life when we must make very important decisions; decisions that mark a critical before and after. Either we go this way, or we go that way. I, for example, had to choose between priesthood and non-consecrated life. I also had to choose between my home country of Colombia and the United States. Today's readings invite us to reflect on the most important decision of our lives.

We must each choose between being a disciple of the Lord or not being one. This decision starts in this world and ends at the hour of our death. There we will be given the opportunity to freely choose to go with God for eternity or not to go with Him. Choosing God and being his disciples requires believing in him, believing in his word and fulfilling his will by obeying his commandments.

Today's gospel reading is the conclusion of the Lord's long discourse in Capernaum about the bread of life. After the Lord satisfied the hunger of thousands, they sought him the next day. The Lord tells them that to be his disciples they must believe in him, in his words. It is then that he tells them that his disciples must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have eternal life. The Lord uses the subject of the Eucharist to force his followers to make the most important decision of their lives.

The Eucharist has ever since been the reason for decisions and divisions. Seeing that most people made the decision not to follow him anymore, the Lord pressures the Twelve apostles also to make this crucial decision in their lives. Saint Peter, on behalf of the Twelve, and convinced that he would not find another person who would speak with words of eternal life, makes the blind step that faith often requires. Saint Peter and the Twelve choose to believe in the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. The church that follows Saint Peter and the apostles in their teachings is the original Church of the Lord and the Church of the real presence in the Eucharist.

As He did with His followers 2000 years ago, the Lord today continues to use the Eucharist to help His disciples renew and make more perfect their decision to be His faithful disciples. This discipleship begins on the day of our baptism and confirmation, which is the day we formally make the decision to follow the Lord.

Participating in the Eucharist every Sunday makes us review and renew our response and fidelity to this decision. Receiving Holy Communion every Sunday is not simply a routine rite. On the contrary, it is something very serious. Receiving Communion represents our public proof that we are living in accordance with that decision. The Eucharist helps us make more perfect this decision. Now, if it happens that we make the decision against following the Lord and we do terribly bad things, which are known as mortal sins, then receiving communion in those circumstances, instead of giving us salvation, will give us condemnation.

Today's gospel reading is paired with a passage from the book of Joshua. After Moses’s death, Joshua replaced him and led the people into the Promised Land. It is at this important moment for the people of Israel that Joshua forced them to make the most important decision for them: either to be disciples of the Lord or not to be. This Old Testament event foreshadowed the important decision that the disciples of the Lord are forced to make in Capernaum. The event foreshadowed the decision we must make about the world to come.

The Church is the people of God who are walking through this desert of the world on their way to the Promised Land of heaven. The solemn decision the people of Israel made before Joshua foreshadowed our final decision when we will leave this world. The Eucharist helps us now to be prepared to make this final decision to choose the Lord for eternity.

Let us give thanks to the Lord for having left us the Eucharist to keep us prepared for eternal life. Let us humbly ask the Lord to grant us his grace to choose him and his commandments every day of our lives.