21st Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B
Joshua 24:1–2a, 15–17, 18b
Psalm 34:2–3, 16–17, 18–19, 20–21
Ephesians 5:21–32 or
Ephesians 5:2a, 25–32
John 6:60–69
Christianity is not a religion for persons who are weak. This truth, often misunderstood, is entirely contrary to the spirit of the age that claims that any religion at all is a sign of weakness in one who believes. Those who have faith are not weak persons who have no capacity to face difficulties. On the contrary, their faith gives them strength to endure beyond merely human strength. Struggles are acknowledged, but those who have faith persevere.
Real faith is not a matter of simple belief in doctrine. It is personal commitment to stay with God and with the community of believers even when others walk away. We are living in a time when many choose to let faith disappear, for themselves and for their own families, because they put other things ahead of their relationship with God. Every family is affected by this. Many reasons are given as to why it is so.
The easiest reason to give is the one that puts all the blame for it on the Church and her leaders, whether clergy, religious or laity who have been in charge. We have not been witnesses with integrity in many ways. However, this misses the point that our faith is not in the fallible human beings who are trying to live it, but in God and in the truth He reveals to us. We have a choice.
Joshua stands before the people entrusted to him by God after the death of Moses and invites them to pledge their lives to the Lord, who brought them out of Egypt to the Promised Land. He lays out for them the real difficulty of being faithful. Then, he makes his own pledge, in the name of his family: “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
The people respond, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD for the service of other gods. For it was the LORD, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. He performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among the peoples through whom we passed. Therefore, we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.” Of course, as Biblical history unfolds, the people follow through with this pledge in a less than exemplary fashion.
In the Gospel, those who have been following Jesus are given a difficult teaching. Many walk away, finding it too much for them. “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Unable to go the distance with Jesus because what He teaches is beyond them, “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”
Jesus turns to the Apostles and asks, “Do you also want to leave?” This is a poignant question. It expresses the pain that Jesus experiences when He attempts to draw closer to His followers by sharing the depth of His Heart with them and finds them resistant. It is also a question that jumps off the page as addressed to us in our time. How are we to respond?
With all the reasons given not to be persons of faith, we are confronted with a moment of decision. When others choose to leave the Church and faith behind, do we also want to leave? Peter gives an answer on behalf of the twelve: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
The Eucharist is the “place” where all the tribes of the Lord are gathered and invited to make a commitment. It may be “a hard saying” for many, but we acknowledge that Jesus speaks the truth to us: “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” Jesus is the Bread of Life, who gives us the words of eternal life. He is truly present to us here and now. Are we ready to make our commitment to Him? Will we “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord” in the Eucharist and in the Mass?
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