The Eucharist: Go and Proclaim - John 6:60-69

“Master, to whom shall we go?”

By the end of chapter six of John’s Gospel the crowd that was following Jesus had been gathered and prepared through the multiplication of the loaves and the fish for what Jesus was about to reveal to them. They had dialogued with Jesus, listening and responding to his invitation to come to him, believe in him, and feed on him. Jesus offered himself to them as the bread of life and urged them to receive him. Now, all of them go but only some of them proclaim.

Those who do not accept the fact that Jesus is the bread of life go back to “their former way of life.” How sad! Those who do accept it, however, go and proclaim what they have come to know and believe: that he is the “Holy One of God,” the “bread of life.” As a result, they now have “eternal life” and “will live forever.”

• The Concluding Rites of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass send us forth, nourished by the Word of God proclaimed and the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood offered and received, to go and proclaim the marvelous things that God has done for us in and through his Son, Jesus Christ!

• The Greeting – We greet one another in the Lord as we prepare to go.

• The Blessing – We receive the blessing of almighty God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• The Dismissal – We are sent forth on mission to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord and to bring the fruits of the Eucharist we have celebrated, namely, salvation, to the world.

Rev. Christopher R. Seibt
Pastor of Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy Parishes
Vice Chancellor of the Diocese of Syracuse