First Reading: Joshua 24: 1-2, 15-18
Second Reading: Ephesians 5: 21-32
Gospel Reading: John 6: 60-69
The readings today focus on the call to be decisive in our commitment to God. A disciple cannot sit on the fence, or delay making a decision. In the first reading from the Book of Joshua, Israel has entered the Promised Land with Joshua as her leader. Towards the end of his life, many Israelites had abandoned the worship of Yahweh, the God of Israel who brought them out of slavery in Egypt to worship other gods. Joshua gathers the people at Shechem and reminds them of their history – how God has been faithful to them, delivering them from slavery in Egypt and guiding them into the Promised Land. He issues a challenge; “Choose you this day whom you shall serve!” It is a choice to serve the Lord or to follow other gods. Joshua tells the people, “As for me and my and my household, we will serve the Lord.” He is the one who saved us from slavery and performed miracles to protect us. This way Joshua made the new generation of Israel renew their commitment to God.
The challenge of Joshua in the first reading, “Choose this day whom you will serve,” parallels Jesus’ question to the twelve – “Do you also want to leave?” For five weeks we have been reflecting on the sixth chapter of John’s gospel which started with the multiplication of loaves and feeding of five thousand. John calls it a sign; a sign that points to a deeper reality – Jesus’ identity and mission as the Bread of Life which fulfils the deeper hunger of man for spiritual nourishment and eternal life. As the passage reaches its high point and Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” As a result, many of his disciples stopped following him. Jesus then turns to the twelve and asks them, “Do you also want to leave?”
There is a book, “33 Days to Eucharistic Glory.” It is an efficacious guide to consecration to Our Eucharistic Lord. In the Introduction, Mathew Kelly reflects on the crises of faith that has rocked the Catholic Church in America in the past thirty years; a crisis that has resulted in more than fifty million Catholics in America abandoning their faith, a serious drop in vocation to the priestly and religious life to the effect that there are about three thousand five hundred parishes in the Unites States without a resident priest, and a shocking research that shows only thirty one percent of Catholics in the United States believe Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. He writes, “Those who believe don’t leave. Believe what? Believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.”
Kelly acknowledges that there are many different reasons why people leave the Church; materialism and secularism, abuse by the clergy or Church authorities, disagreement with the way their priest is doing things, different liturgical preferences, feeling unwelcome in the parish community etc. Despite the many reasons to leave, many people stay and not leave. Why is that? Kelly argues that the one overarching reason is that “They believe Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist and they know that only the Catholic Church can offer this gift to them. They might be able to go down the road and experience better preaching and more dynamic music, but they are simply not willing to give up the Eucharist in exchange for that. Why? Because it’s a bad deal. But you have to know and believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist to understand how bad a deal it is to give that up for what is trivial by comparison.” p. 7
Today, Jesus directs the same question to us, “Do you also want to leave?” The question, “Do you also want to leave?” is equivalent to the challenge Joshua put before the Israelites, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” And the response of the people, “We also will serve the Lord, for he is our God” parallels Peter’s response, “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 question, “Do you also want to leave?” and the challenge to decide whom we want to serve, is not just a historical moment; it resonates deeply with every believer of all time. The choice to be decisive in our commitment to God is a daily decision that shapes one’s life and actions. We are every day confronted with the choice for or against God. Sometimes it comes in the most subtle way – to be pro-life or pro-choice, to go to mass on Sunday or not, to love or to hate, etc.
The Israelites in the first reading made a choice for God because they remembered His saving intervention when they were slaves in Egypt and how he protected and led them on the way to the Promised Land. We also have seen the wonders of the Lord especially in Christ’s work of salvation, like the Psalmist, we have tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord so that we do not simply repeat the words of the Israelites in the first reading or the response of Peter in the gospel but make them our own with the same conviction. Let us pray in this mass for the grace to remain wholehearted disciples of our Savior and faithful members of the Church.
Happy Sunday,
Fr Chidi Onwuka, m.ss.cc