Homily for 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Aug. 26, 2018

John 6: 60-69
Josh 24: 1-2, 15-18
Collect
Nativity, Washington

“Do you want to leave too?” (John 6: 67).

How many times have you heard that this is a period of crisis?  There’s a crisis in the Middle East!  There’s a crisis in Korea!  Every 4 years the Democrats and the Republicans tell us we’re facing the most important election of our lifetime; it’s a political crisis!  We have an economic crisis, an immigration crisis, a leadership crisis.  We have a vocations crisis, an abuse crisis, an episcopal crisis.  The Church is in crisis!

In today’s gospel there’s a crisis—maybe 2 crises (that’s the plural).  A crisis is a decision point or a time of judgment.

Christ Teaching in the Synagog

(source unknown)

It seems that Jesus faces a crisis:  lots of his followers are abandoning him.  After his teaching on the Bread of Life—the Eucharist—many of his disciples mutter, “This is too much; this teaching’s too hard.  Who can accept it?  This is crazy!” (cf. John 6:60)  What’s Jesus to think?  Has he gone too far or too fast or not explained himself well?  Should he have doubts about his mission or his understanding of his Father’s will?  But, no, he stands firm, decisive:  “Does this shock you?  What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?  [He knows who he is!]  It’s the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.  The words that I’ve spoken to you are spirit and life.” (6:61-63)

He turns to the 12, his closest disciples, his friends.  For them, as for the mass of disciples, it’s a decision point.  Will they listen to what Jesus has been saying?  Can they believe he’s the Bread of Life, that the spirit gives life and the flesh is useless?  Will they remain with him? (cf. 6:67)

There’s a famous line in the Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup, spoken by Chico:  “Who ya gonna believe?  Me or your own eyes?”  Bring that to our gospel:  “Can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (6:52)  Is Jesus truly “the bread that came down from heaven,” and “whoever eats this bread will live forever”? (6:58)  Or is he only a carpenter from Nazareth who’s been out in the sun too long?

Simon Peter, as usual the leader, the most perceptive of the 12, or at least the most impetuous, answers for all of them—or maybe all except Judas (cf. 6:64):  “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life” (6:68).

Certainly Simon doesn’t fully comprehend what Jesus means in his teaching about the Bread of Life, about his Body and Blood.  But he knows Jesus well enuf to trust him implicitly.  He makes a fundamental decision:  Jesus, I’m sticking with you.  Jesus, you will lead me to eternal life.

In the 1st reading, the Israelites also had to make a fundamental decision, which Joshua, successor of Moses and their leader in the invasion of the Promised Land, put before them.  Will you revert to the worship of “the gods your ancestors served beyond the River” (Josh 24:15), i.e., in Mesopotamia, whence Abraham had migrated?  Or will you adopt the worship of the gods of your new neighbors in Canaan—the Amorites and other peoples?  Or will you adhere to “the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt”? (24:16)  The gods beyond the Euphrates and the gods of Canaan were visible—idols—and enticing in their fertility rites, and not morally demanding; whereas the God of the Sinai covenant is invisible, chaste, very demanding, and intolerant of deviations.  Joshua left them free to choose—as tribes or clans—but compelled a decision (24:15).

So does God compel us, speaking to us thru his Son Jesus Christ, thru the voice of the Church of Jesus—I mean the authentic voice of the Church, not the misleading voices of false shepherds—and thru the events of our own life experience.

I just made a retreat in which the preacher warned us against what he calls the 8 Ps of the false self, 8 temptations that try to convince us that they’re our way to happiness and fulfillment.  All of us to some extent buy into 1 or more of them:  power, prestige, possessions, productivity, popularity, people, pleasure, and praise.  Those, of course, are the idols, the false gods, that we worship—against which Jesus challenges us to choose, to make our fundamental decision.

As we’ve seen again in recent weeks—Church history has shown it repeatedly—even the clergy are susceptible to the enticements of the 8 Ps.  But St. Paul cautions us, “Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall” (1 Cor 10:12).

At the beginning of Mass we prayed in the Collect about our fundamental decision:  “amid the uncertainties of this world, may our hearts be fixed on that place where true gladness is found.”

For our personal experience has shown us time and again, hasn’t it, that power, prestige, possessions, productivity, popularity, people, pleasure, and praise are very uncertain matters, as fleeting as the morning fog, as unsatisfying in the long term—even in the medium term—as an ice cream cone.  Our hearts want more—true gladness, lasting gladness.

St. Peter

(St. Waltrude Collegiate Church, Mons, Belgium)

St. Peter tells us where to find that:  “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”

Don’t be sidetracked, then, by the glitter you see with your physical eyes or easy teachings that tickle your ears; to quote St. Paul again, “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and they will turn away from listening to the truth” (2 Tim 4:3-4).  The world around us is full of baloney:  in politics, in public morality, in economic selfishness, in the fear of people who differ from us, in slogans like “Grab all the gusto you can,” “Look out for #1,” “Get the other guy before he gets you,” “Greed is good,” “I did it my way.”

Jesus, instead, tells us that our joy—our “true gladness”—lies in serving others, in fidelity, in putting God 1st in our lives, in establishing a firm and trusting relationship with him.  “Master, to whom shall we go?  Where else can we go?  You have the words of the eternal life.”  You are “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).