Jesus said, I am the bread of life. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever (John 6:51).

What if you were among those quarreling Jews back then who said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat"? Which side would you have taken, even while face to face in his presence?  

Those who didn't believe or took him metaphorically went back to their own ways. They were his disciples up to this point, but this new command to eat his flesh and drink his blood was just too weird for them to accept. 

In the words of Benedictine Monk Calmet, "They were not able to raise their hearts to a more elevated and spiritual way of understanding Christ's words." 

And as St. John Chrysostom in the 4th Century said, "If they were blamed for making foolish and blasphemous statements like "How can he give us his flesh to eat," are those who refuse to believe in his real presence in the Eucharist TODAY any less blamable?"  

Have we, as believers, ever been challenged by those who refuse to believe today?

So that we can stand up stronger to these challenges, here are a few helpful responses from St. Ambrose...  

If we believe the water was changed into wine at the marriage feast of Cana; if we believe that the bread in the hands of Christ and his apostles was not diminished by being broken and divided among five thousand, why cannot we believe the miracle of the Eucharist on the authority of Christ's word.

If the word of Elias could call down fire from heaven, shall not the word of Christ be able to change the outward elements? ... Was the order of nature followed when Jesus was born of a Virgin?... Then why is that order to be looked for here? 

How much more powerful is the virtue of the divine blessing than nature? If the blessing of men (as with Moses changing a rod into a serpent) was powerful enough to change nature, what can we not say of the divine consecration, where the very words of the Lord operate? 

And if Jesus... during his public ministry, performed so many miracles, was it not to induce us to believe, without doubting the truths that surpass our reason? 

Thank you, St. Ambrose, for equipping us to be ready for the challenges of our non-believing friends and doubters.