DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Joshua 24,1-2, 15-18; Ephesians 5,21-32; John 6,60-69: 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)
Faith is not dependent on rational certainty; neither does it oppose it outrightly. In the journey of faith, the human person, true to his nature, as a rational being, must begin with a conscious rational judgment, decision and assent. However, one must definitely come to a point where logical human reasoning must give way to a sort of ‘leap in the dark’. At such a point, there must be the readiness to be guided by a childlike trust that allows one to follow the dictates of divine revelation with utmost trust and resignation. Joshua’s action in today’s first reading and Peter’s resolute profession of faith in the gospel offer us abundant light into understanding all these. A profession of faith in most cases always involves a choice among many options.
Joshua invited the Israelites to make a careful and conscious decision about their readiness to serve God. The Israelites were challenged to declare if they wanted to serve the only God or the gods of the pagans. Joshua warned them to be mindful of the implications of making such a decision. In essence, Joshua wanted the people to employ their sense of judgment that must follow a rational appraisal of the demands of serving God and their own readiness to be faithful to such demands. He saw the need to allow their faith grow out of a conscious rational appraisal and judgment. The choice must be made. He himself did, so will the Israelites. The profession of faith followed: “We will serve the Lord for he is our God”.
In the gospel today, we see another example of making a choice to follow God. At a moment when some of the followers of Christ deserted him because they found it difficult to obtain a rational clarity of what Jesus was saying, Peter made this bold profession of faith and declared to continue following Jesus: “Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God”. You can be sure that just like those who decided to leave Christ, Peter did not have a rational clarity of all that Jesus was saying. But unlike them, he was ready to make that leap of faith where rational clarity was not sufficiently available. Peter’s statement did not, in any way, indicate a half-hearted acceptance of an unavoidable option. It was rather a profession of faith arising from the conviction that human reasoning does not have all the answers in understanding the mystery of the kingdom of God.
What Joshua did and also encouraged the Israelites to do is even more pertinent for us today: we must make a conscious decision to serve God. That decision calls for a rational awareness of the challenges inherent in serving God and our readiness to meet up with those challenges. However, we must understand that in analyzing these challenges and understanding them, human reason does not have all the answers. St. Peter teaches us today in the gospel to dare the leap of faith with trust in divine revelation even when we do not have all the rational clarity.
But before we end this brief reflection we need to remind ourselves that a lot of Christians have abandoned their choice of Christ to follow other gods, make for themselves the gods they worship, some of which are: money, financial or cultic power, pleasure, carrier, etc. Some of us have become slaves to these gods, under whose bondage we live. It is true, we have made our profession of faith and made a fundamental choice to follow and serve Christ, putting into practice his teachings and examples.
The big question is: Are we faithful to our choice? Do we not often prefer the idols of this world to God and the teachings of Christ? As weak human beings, we are constantly tempted to follow the idols of today and we often, like the Jews of today’s Gospel, find the words of Jesus too hard when for example we are challenged to make some renunciations and sacrifices like: (a) overcoming our bad passions (b) living honestly, ethically and morally (c) withdrawing our hearts from the goods and things of this world (d) loving all without discrimination (e) Always and spontaneously forgiving others their offenses against us (f) taking up our daily crosses like Christ did. At such moments of challenge when we are expected to witness to our Christian faith-commitments, we are tempted to withdraw, and find scape goats. Today, the Church invites us to verify, and profess our faith and faithfulness to Christ again and find at what point our daily choices, in our personal, family, professional, social and political lives conform to the Gospel and will of God. Today, we are called and challenged to renew our efforts to live coherently as Christians and declare and profess from the depth of hearts with the people of Israel of Joshua time: “We will serve the Lord for he is our God”. Also with Peter to profess our faith and faithfulness to Christ: “Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God”. May the good Lord sustain our profession of faith in Him and in His Son with His abundant graces, Amen!Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye
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