With the junior high kids in their classroom during one of their first days of school, I heard about one of those electronic shorthand phrases that is used in email and such things. It was new to me: TRU DAT. To a text or a tweet, they told me, I can respond, “TRU DAT,” which means, “That’s right. I agree.” It is a like a church full of believers giving the preacher an, “Amen to that!” I asked the kids to pay attention on Sunday, because I was going to try to use that expression in my homily somehow. I found out that it was quite easy with Sunday’s Gospel.
You see, Jesus had been speaking these last few Sundays in John’s Gospel about himself being Eucharist for us: “I am the bread of life. I am the bread come down from heaven. My body is real food, my blood is real drink. I am Eucharist for you. Those who eat my body and drink my blood will have eternal life; those who don’t, won’t.” Unlike many who found this teaching too hard and too shocking to believe, and walked away, Peter, speaking for himself and his companions, responded instantly, “TRU DAT.” What he meant was, “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God. You are Eucharist for us. That’s right. I agree.”
Then the Apostles tweeted the text of Jesus with their TRU DAT to all their followers, who in turn did a RT to all their followers. That continued, until someone wrote it all down. And we call it the Gospel. To which we respond, “TRU DAT.”
With Open Doors 
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