May God in this Sunday's Eucharist bestow upon you the insight to choose worshiping him and the courage of heart to persevere with your decision. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Joshua 24,1-2, 15-18; Ephesians 5,21-32; John 6,60-69: Year B)
Today, the first reading and the gospel reading challenge us to take decisions that could affect us through all our lives. In the first reading, all the tribes and all those who hold a position of leadership gather at Shechem. Joshua’s address to the assembly is in the form of prophetic declaration: Thus says the Lord. He places before the people a choice that will shape their own self-identity and will determine the path they and their descendants will travel for the rest of their lives. Whom will they serve? Three options were given. First, they can continue to serve their ancestral gods and thus remain true to their past identity. Or, they can opt for the gods of the people in whose land they were dwelling and thus hope to reap the blessings that accompany that land. Finally, they can worship the Lord, who is tied neither to their cultural past nor their geographic present. They must make a choice from among all the gods to whom they will commit themselves. Joshua’s statement of choice is decisive: We will serve the Lord. The rest of the people make the same decision: We will serve the Lord because he is our God. In explaining the reasons for their choice, they rehearse the high points of the saving acts that God performed in their midst and for their sake. These include the deliverance from bondage, the wonders in the wilderness, and the entrance into the land. Through all of these, God was there, protecting them at every step of the way. Their choice of a god was determined not by the territory within which they lived, as was the case with many of the nations of the time, but by God’s personal involvement in their lives. Their choice to serve the Lord was a beautiful profession of faith, a beautiful commitment of fidelity to the Lord.
In the gospel reading, we notice the shocking disbelief to the teaching of Jesus that comes, not from his Jewish opponents but from some of his own disciples. They were more than shocked, they were scandalized by what he said. What he had just been saying to them about himself was more than even they could take. Hence, the author was referring to Jesus’ identification of himself as the Son of Man who had come down from heaven. Eventually some of the disciples no longer followed him. Jesus was not indifferent toward the departure of these disciples. He turned to them to see what they were going to do. He neither asked them to stay nor gave them permission to go. He simply posed the question: Do you want to leave too? Assuming the role of spokesperson of the Twelve, Simon Peter responded with three statements of faith. The first is quite guileless. He declared that there is no one else to whom they could go to, because there is no one else quite like Jesus. With his second statement he showed that he has accepted what Jesus has just been teaching about eternal life. The final statement brings his profession of faith to an amazing conclusion. He uses a messianic title to identify Jesus. This passage indicates that while some of his followers have turned away, others have been convinced of the trustworthiness of Jesus’ claims.
Our consideration of Jesus’ teaching about the bread of life (that has been running for some Sundays now) leads us to the threshold of decision. Will we choose Jesus, despite the incredible claims he makes? Or will we decide to stay where we are, satisfied with the lives we are living? Choosing Jesus will bring us deeper and deeper into the mystery of the Eucharist. Are we willing to go there? The decisions called for in today’s readings are not the kind we face every day, they are not choices among several options, all of relatively the same value. Rather, they are life decisions, the kind that determine the fundamental direction we will take and consequently influence every other decision we will make. The people at the time of Joshua had to decide which god they would worship. This decision would determine their identity. They would be known as the people of whichever god they would choose, and they would be bound to the norms and practices set down by that god. “Decide today whom you will serve.” The disciples of Jesus had to make a similar decision. Was he the one who would fulfil their messianic expectations? And if not to him, “To whom shall we go?”
The choices we make really determine the character of our union with God. It is God who has called us out of the slavery of sin and protected us throughout the journey of our lives. When we find ourselves at the point of decision, why should we choose someone else? If we have walked with Jesus through some of the challenges of life and have witnessed the wonders he can perform, why should we choose someone else? The new demands placed on us may be so great, or the commitment required of us may be so demanding, that we feel we can no longer walk with him. The Church may be changing in ways we do not appreciate, or it may not be changing in the ways we believe it should, so we feel that we can no longer walk with him no longer. If we decide to commit ourselves, we will enter into a union with God deeper than anything we have previously known. However, this union will be based on faith. We may understand no more than we did in the past, and things may not turn out to our liking. But “to whom shall we go?” Jesus is God’s holy one; he has the words of eternal life. To him alone shall we go and have eternal life. Therefore may God give us the graces we need to make a good choice, to always and in all circumstances of our lives stay with him, for he is life. Happy Sunday. +John. I. Okoye
(graphics by charles)
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