Twenty First Sunday of the year August 22, 2021
Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69
A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper
and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've
gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard
something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single
one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs
by giving sermons at all. "This
started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much
to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this
clincher: "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has
cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire
menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this. They all nourished me
and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me
these meals, I would be physically dead today.
Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be
spiritually dead today!" The entire
controversy ended with this response.
The readings of today are a rousing call to introspection for
each of us and they challenge us to reflect on our total commitment to
following Jesus and staying with him alone. In the first reading Joshua aware
that the people of Israel had a penchant for creating false gods and
worshipping these challenges the people of Israel to choose, a choice that will
determine and have consequences for their living as the true children of God
and enjoying his favour and blessing as his children.
The Gospel text in John which comes at the end of the
chapter 6, known as the Bread of Life Discourse contains something that is
implicit in all the passages of the entire Gospels. It forces us to make a
choice, to come to a decision.
It is little wonder that the disciples found the discourse
of Jesus hard. The Greek word is Skleros
which means not hard to understand; but hard to accept. The disciples knew
quite well that Jesus had been claiming to be the very life of God came down
from heaven, and that no one could live this life or face it without submitting
to him.
Here we come upon a truth that re-emerges in every age. Time
and again it is not the intellectual difficulty which keeps people from
becoming Christians; it is the height of Christ's moral demand. At the heart of
a religion there must be mystery, for the simple reason that at that heart
there is God. In the nature of things man cannot ever fully understand God. Any
honest thinker will accept that there must be mystery.
In the Gospel we find, the evangelist John to make it clear
to his own community and ultimately even those who were physically present with
Jesus and had heard him teach had difficulty in believing him. We today are at
no disadvantage because we are attempting to follow Jesus centuries after he
was on earth. The key was never his physical presence. The key has always been
faith and from that perspective, we are absolutely at no disadvantage. Jesus
had explained and described what communion with his Body and his Blood
consisted of, and what its fruits were: to live in him in his own divine life
which he himself gets from his Father. Jesus had said: "He who eats my
flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent
me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of
me."
We need to understand that Eucharist is a Mystery of Faith.
The Eucharist is that divine reality that unites, or which divides. It unites
if one believes in it, and it divides if one does not believe in it, or if one
does not believe in it correctly. Faith is a supernatural virtue that resides
in our intellect: faith requires some human support, that of our human
knowledge, a knowledge which may consist of simple ideas, but which is often
made up of more or less elaborate judgments. Faith, a gift of God, serves to
lift up our soul and spirit above material and corporeal contingencies. It is
to this supernatural attitude that Jesus tries to lead his disciples.
During this Covid time we had to make deliberate choices to
follow Jesus. We had to remain faithful to Him, no matter how hard the things
were with us. It is a narrow path. A path that is less travelled. May this Eucharist fill us with that Faith of
Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Happy Sunday
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