Homily for 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Aug. 25, 2024
John 6: 60-69
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?” (John 6: 60).

Christ teaching in a synagog
like the one in Capernaum (John 6:59)

We’ve been reading St. John’s 6th chapter for 5 weeks, since July 28.  Our reading culminated last week when Jesus pronounced, “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (6:51).  If we desire eternal life, we must eat his flesh and drink his blood; otherwise we don’t have life within us (cf. 6:53); we’re spiritually dead.

We heard some rumblings of skepticism from the crowd.  Today those rumblings become open disbelief:  “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (6:66).  Jesus asks the 12, his closest followers, his intimate friends, whether they’ll leave, too.  Speaking for all of them—except maybe for Judas, “the one who would betray him” (6:64)—Peter responds with a question of his own:  “Master, where would we go?  We know you’re God’s Holy One who speaks the words of eternal life.”

The 1st part of Peter’s response, by the way, is Card. Dolan’s motto:  Ad quem ibimus?  “To whom shall we go?”

When we look around, it’s apparent that a lot of Catholics have gone somewhere else, are following someone else.  Surveys show us repeatedly that only about one quarter of people who say they’re Catholic come to Mass on a regular basis, come to partake of the bread of life.  The stats are even worse for young adults.  Apparently, for a majority of Catholics, not to speak of other Christians, salvation’s to be found at the beach, in the mountains, in the backyard, at sporting events.  All of those are good in themselves, but they don’t fulfill our deepest longings.  Apparently, for many people salvation’s to be found in one’s own opinions, one’s own “truth,” about public and private morality, about how to live their lives, without regard for the Word of God.  That’s not good in itself.  It gives us moral and social chaos.  Ultimately, it’s deeply frustrating.

Which doesn’t mean that we who are in church most Sundays should take on the attitude of the Pharisee whom Jesus condemned in one of his parables; he prayed his thanks to the Lord that he was better than everyone else (Luke 18:9-14).  God forbid we think that way!

We, too, are sinners who need to take to heart the choice that today’s sacred Scriptures put to us.  Do we really believe that Jesus teaches us the way to eternal life?  Do we give the same answer that the people gave to Joshua about what God we’ll serve, the God “who performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey” (Jos 24:17)?  I.e., will we serve the God who raised Jesus from the dead and sent out his apostles to proclaim the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life thru Jesus, “the Holy One of God”—Jesus who lives and teaches us thru the apostles and their successors in the Catholic Church?

For example, today we heard St. Paul’s teaching about Christian marriage (Eph 5:21-32).  Putting his teaching into today’s context:  he’s calling on both husbands and wives to attend to each other, to serve each other, to look out for each other’s needs and concerns, to love each other in the same way that Christ loves the Church and sacrificed himself for us.  That’s a hard saying, as every married person knows.

Likewise, Jesus and his Church give us hard sayings—Gospel truths—about the dignity of every human being, unborn or aged, healthy or infirm, saint or sinner, regardless of race, nation, or religion; about human sexuality being directed not only to mutual love (as St. Paul says) but also toward the procreation and raising of children; about fidelity in marriage between one man and one woman; about the works of mercy toward our neighbors; about moral means of defending oneself and one’s country; about our responsibility as citizens for the leaders we choose to govern us and the policies they make.

Jesus asks us:  “Does this shock you?  What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” (John 6:61-62).  The Son of Man has ascended to heaven.  In our Creed we affirm that he’ll come again to judge the living and the dead—to judge our faithfulness to his teaching.  He invites us, as we prayed in the collect a while ago, to “fix our hearts on that place where true gladness is found” (Collect), which isn’t in this world but in the world where our Lord Jesus reigns, the world to which he promises to bring us when he returns on the Last Day, in “the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come” (Creed).