Twenty-first Sunday of
Ordinary Time – August 22, 2021
On Sunday we have the
fifth and final reading from the 6th chapter of John’s gospel.
The following Sunday, August 29, we will go back to reading from Mark’s gospel. The passage-
for this Sunday is really a parallel between
the scene in the Synoptics where Jesus asks his
disciples who they think he is.
John puts it in his unique way.
Jesus’ disciples are being presented with a crucial choice. It is similar
with the scene at
Shechem from the end of the book of Joshua in today’s first reading. God’s people have
ente-
red the Promised Land. The people already living there have their own gods,
gods who might
seem very attractive to the Israelites. Joshua, who took over
the leadership role after Moses
died, has called together the elders, leaders,
judges and scribes of Israel and presents them
with a choice: either continue
to serve the God who brought them out of Egypt and through the
desert to the
Promised Land where they are now settled; or they can adopt the gods of the
Amo-
rites or Canaanites whose lands they have conquered for themselves.
The people make a
decisive choice for Yahweh and endorse the covenants that have been made in
the
past by Abraham and Moses. In reality, however, we know they will not always be
faithful
to the covenants and will fall away many times. We understand that
experience and the need to
renew our faith commitment, as we do on Easter every
year or at Sunday Mass when we recite the
Creed, “I believe…”.
Last Sunday, because
the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary had different readings, we didn’t
here how shocking were the words of Jesus when he said:
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood, you have
no life in you.” Now, not only the religious leaders but
Jesus’ own disciples are deeply scandalized: “This teaching is
difficult; who can accept it?”
We know that the
words are not to be taken only in a literal sense. It is Jesus’ dramatic way
of saying that we must accept him totally, without any
conditions or reservation. His thoughts
and attitudes, his values, his
life-view must become totally ours. Above all, we are to ident-
ify with him in
the offering of his flesh and the pouring out of his blood on the cross, the
greatest
sign of God’s love for us. We accept that in our going to communion we accept
the
challenge to be totally one with Jesus. It is not enough for him to come to
me; I also have to
go all the way to him, with him. When the minister says,
offering the Bread: “The Body of Chr-
ist”, I respond with a total
“Amen”. That “Yes” is not just an act of faith in the Real Pres-
ence but a commitment
to and a choice for the values and vision of Jesus.
In the gospel reading
Jesus faced his own disciples with a significant choice. They must cho-
ose
either to follow him or to walk away from him and take another path. Jesus was
aware that
his disciples had already chosen to follow him, but he also knew
that this was a choice the
disciples needed to renew over and over again.
The more significant
the choice that we make, the more we need to remake that choice throu-
ghout our
lives. The decision to serve the Lord, to follow the Lord, is the most
significant
choice we could make in life. In choosing the Lord, we are choosing
a way of life, a way of
looking at life and a way of living life. In making
such a choice and re-making it over and
over again, we are taking a fundamental
stance in life, a gospel stance, one that influences
a whole range of other
choices we will make in life. That is not to say that everything we
say and do
will always be shaped by that stance. No one is perfect or totally consistent.
Yet, we will be aware when what we say and do is not in tune with our choice of
the Lord,
and we will at least have the desire to bring all other choices more
in line with our choice
of the Lord.
Fr. Don, cp