Mother Church celebrates Sunday, August 25, 2024, as the twenty-first Sunday in ordinary time, year B. In the Entrance Antiphon, we pray: “Turn your ear, O Lord, and answer me; save the servant who trusts in you, my God. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. Amen.”
The renewal of our faith in God is a message that runs through the readings of this day. In the first reading, Joshua gathers the Israelites at Shechem—where God first appeared to their father Abraham promising to make his descendants a great nation in a new land (see Genesis 12:1–9). There Joshua issues a blunt challenge: either renew their covenant with God or serve the alien gods of the surrounding nations.
In Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus’ ministry in Galilee ends in failure as many of his disciples, finding his discourse on the bread of life intolerable, abandon him. Jesus then asks the Twelve Apostles to make a choice—either to believe and accept the New Covenant He offers in His Body and Blood or return to their former ways of life.
In Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians in the second reading, Jesus nourishes and cherishes us, through the Eucharist, making us His own flesh and blood, as husband and wife become one flesh. Paul’s image of Christian marriage reflects the union of Christ to his Church.
We too are being asked to decide whom we will serve: the God of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, or the gods of our own making. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the grace of renewed faith in God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is God alone who brings us all out of the slavery of sin and makes us a new and free people.
First Reading: Joshua 24: 1-2. 15-18.
Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning their elders, their leaders, their judges, and their officers. When they stood in ranks before God, Joshua addressed all the people: "If it does not please you to serve the Lord, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." But the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the Lord for the service of other gods. For it was the Lord, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. He performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among the peoples through whom we passed. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God."
Comment
The Book of Joshua celebrates Israel’s take-over of the Promised Land, under the leadership of Joshua. God has delivered on the promises he made to the patriarchs, that he will give them a land of their own on which they can settle and enjoy peace and prosperity.
Moses rescued the people from bondage in Egypt, led them for forty years through the desert, and made them into an organized community based on the Law he received from God in the Sinai. But God did not allow Moses to enter the Promised Land; that role was reserved for his disciple and chief-of-staff, Joshua. Moses had been a great administrator and judge; Joshua was a soldier and a brilliant commander. Where Moses had created a nation, it was to Joshua that fell the task of settling that nation and establishing it within its own borders. Where Moses wielded a pen, Joshua wielded a sword. He was a born soldier, just as Moses was a born statesman.
It was Joshua who commanded the invasion and conquest of Canaan after leading the people across the Jordan. After the invasion, he partitioned the land and allotted defined districts to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. He is celebrated as the bravest field commander in Jewish history.
This day’s reading comes at a time when Joshua is already an old man, and the country is resting from war. He then calls all the tribes of Israel to the ancient sanctuary of Shechem. All the elders, leaders, judges and scribes are called to listen to the last farewell of their distinguished leader. He has not summoned them to boast about his military victories, nor does he ask them to cherish what he has done for them. Instead he asks them to choose whom they wish to serve: the God of their ancestors or the false gods of the land they inhabit.
It is as if he does not wish to be remembered as the great military commander, who brought his people to the Promised Land, but rather as the prophet who brought his people to choose the true God of Israel over the false gods of the people among whom they live. He gives his people the opportunity to recommit themselves to the God of Israel. He asks them to choose and he openly declares before them his own choice to serve the Lord. This offer to choose finds echo in the Gospel of this day when Jesus asks his disciples to make a choice: either follow him or go their way. By leading his people to choose the God of Israel, Joshua wins the last and most important battle of his life, the victory of fidelity over falsehood. “We too,” they declare after their Commander-in-Chief, “will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”
That is the most important lesson I am taking from this reading. Our God will not abandon us when we are in trouble. He will come to our assistance, as he came to the assistance of the Jews in captivity and brought them to the land he had promised them. I know that when I turn to him in my worries, he will rescue me. As the Psalmist sings in this day’s Responsorial Psalm, when you call the Lord hears you and rescues you from your distress. He is close to the broken hearted and those whose spirit is crushed, he saves. He lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
Second Reading: Ephesians 5: 21-32.
Brothers and sisters: Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.
Comment
In this concluding passage from his Epistle to the Ephesians, Saint Paul provides a general principle which should govern relationships among members of the Church: they should submit to one another, knowing that Christ is their judge. He then refers specifically to family relationships, highlighting the element of natural dependence of wife on husband, husband on wife, children on parents, and parents on children, as well as servants on masters, and masters on their servants.
Saint Paul tells us that the supernatural grandeur and dignity of Christian marriage lies in the fact that it is an extension of the union between Christ and his Church. To exhort Christian couples to live the rules of the Church, the Apostle establishes the analogy whereby the husband represents Christ and the wife the Church. This teaching has its roots in the Old Testament, where the relationships between Yahweh and his people are expressed in the preaching of the prophets in terms of the relationship between husband and wife. The husband loves his wife truly, and is completely faithful to her (Hos 1:3; Jer 2:20). God is forever faithful to the love he has shown Israel, and is ever ready to forgive her (Is 54: 5-8; Jer 31: 21-22).
In the New Testament, Jesus describes himself as the bridegroom (Mt 26: 26-29) and the relationship between him and the Church appears in terms of husband and wife. When Saint Paul exhorts wives to be subject to their husbands, he is not only referring to the social position of women of his time, but also the fact that a Christian wife, by the way she relates to her husband, should reflect the Church itself, in its obedience to Christ. The husband, for his part, is urged to be similarly submissive to his wife, for he is a reflection of Christ, who gave himself up even to death out of love for his Church. In the beautiful words of Pope Pius XI, “If the husband is the head of the domestic body, then the wife is its heart; and as the first holds the primacy of authority, so the second ought to claim the primacy of love.”
In his encyclical, Familiaris consortio, Saint John Paul II says that “Above all, it is important to underline the equal dignity and responsibility of women with men. This equality is realized in a unique manner in that reciprocal self-giving by each one to the other and by both to the children, which is proper to marriage and family.”
Let us say this prayer from an Anglican prayer book for our families, especially those experiencing difficulties. "O God our Father, bind together in your all-embracing love every family on earth. Banish anger and bitterness within them; nourish forgiveness and peace. Bestow upon parents such wisdom and patience that they may gently exercise the discipline of love, and call forth from their children their greatest virtue and their highest skill. Instill in children such independence and self-respect that they may freely obey their parents, and grow in the joys of companionship. Open ears to hear the truth within the words another speaks; open eyes to see the reality beneath another’s appearance; and make mutual affection of families a sign of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life; you have the words of everlasting life. Alleluia.”
Gospel: John 6: 60-69.
Many of Jesus' disciples who were listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, "Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father." As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."
Comment
The choice that Joshua offered his people in the first reading is echoed in the Gospel of this day when Jesus offers his own followers the choice to stay with him or join the ranks of the unbelievers. After hearing Jesus’ teaching on the bread of life, many of his followers openly express their disapproval. They find his language intolerable and many of them choose to leave him. Then, like Joshua to the twelve tribes, Jesus turns to the twelve apostles and gives them the choice to remain with him or part way with him. But just as the twelve tribes tell Joshua they cannot reject the Lord, after all that he has done for them, so Peter tells Jesus he and his companions cannot turn away from him because he alone has the message of eternal life. So, the apostles exercise their freedom of choice by choosing to stay with Jesus.
But Joshua and Jesus respect people’s freedom of choice. “What about you, do you want to go away too?” Jesus asks his apostles. Perhaps this question is directed to you and me too. We live in an age when many are turning away from Jesus. For some, it is a question of ideology; for others, it is an attachment to secular things or addiction to drugs or alcohol. Many who are looking for pleasure see the Christian faith as an obstacle on their way, so they prefer to ignore it altogether.
Are we like the apostles who, when challenged by Jesus, decide to remain faithful to him? Peter takes the lead and expresses the feelings of the others, and hopefully ours as well. “Lord, where shall we go? You have the message of eternal life.” So what is our choice? Is it Christ; is it the lure of money, or bodily pleasure? Do we have the honesty and courage to say with the Israelites: “We shall serve the Lord because He is our God”? Today provides a good opportunity to examine the sincerity of our self-surrender to our Lord and to see if we joyfully put aside all that hinders us from following him.
Like those disciples, who reaffirm their faith in Christ through Peter, there are many men and women living in the city of Douala who have been walking for long in darkness and need to find the path that will lead them to Christ, the light of the nations. Christ is our light, without him, there is only darkness. Christ is our life, without him, there is only death. Christ is our love, without him, there is only hatred.
Addressing students in Guadalajara, Mexico, on January 30, 1979, Saint John Paul II urged them to “seek Jesus; endeavouring to acquire a deep personal faith that will inform and direct your whole life. But, above all, let it be your commitment and your programme to love Jesus, with sincere, authentic, and personal love. He must be your friend and your support along the path of life. He alone has the words of eternal life.”
God gave us the freedom to choose. Let us, like Peter and the other disciples, make a good choice by choosing Jesus. When we do, we see the joy in drawing closer to him and rejecting all that separates us from him. Unfortunately for many, freedom means following one’s impulses or instincts, allowing oneself to be carried along by one’s passions, or by whatever one feels like doing. The Apostles in this Gospel reading have done what we must all do: choose only Jesus Christ because we must and should stay with the one who has eternal life.
Let us, with the Psalmist, bless the Lord at all times, his praise always on our lips because when we call he listens and comes to our rescue. He is close to the broken-hearted, and those whose spirit is crushed he will save. We make our plea through Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
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