21st Sunday 2021
Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18; Ephesians 5:21-32. John 6: 60-69
Take it or leave it! Essentially, that is the message of today’s First Reading and Gospel. The Israelites, the disciples, and we, are presented with a stark choice. There is no leeway, no compromise, no ifs or buts. Either we are for God, or we are against Him: either we accept Jesus’ words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, without attempting to explain them away, or we cannot count ourselves among His disciples.
The Israelites, after wandering in the desert, have finally reached the Promised Land; and Joshua, who has become their leader following the death of Moses, presents them with alternatives. Either they can follow pagan gods, or they can become disciples of the one true God: they cannot do both.
Joshua gives them what is effectively an ultimatum because, after repeatedly grumbling throughout their time in the wilderness, they have now become careless in their adherence to the one God. Immediately, the people declare their allegiance to God, but their commitment would prove to be fragile, and through the centuries there would be repeated instances of backsliding.
It is fairly clear how this situation is repeated in our world today. People have discovered a whole range of alternative gods, in the forms of comfort, material prosperity, and a sort of superstitious scientism, which deifies science in a way which sensible, rational scientists avoid.
That is the easy, comforting explanation of Joshua’s question as it is posed today. It is too easy, too comforting. It is easy and comforting for us to claim that we have made our choice and avoided those traps.
What, though, of the other traps? What about the trap of grumbling, which was the beginning of the Israelites’ rebellion? I am not suggesting that we should all become Pollyannas, finding everything wonderful and denying reality, joining the ranks of the “Smile, Jesus loves you” brigade. That sort of relentless cheerfulness can be as destructive as its opposite, as GK Chesterton points out in the Fr. Brown story “The Three Tools of Death”.
Yet, if we are honest, we may well discover that we are in danger of falling into a negative mindset. This can quickly develop into an inability to see goodness anywhere, and can lead to effectively denying the goodness of God.
Further, is our commitment to God as genuine as it seems, or is it focused on a god of our own creation, whose ideas conveniently match our own? Do we really worship and serve God, or are we devotees of our own way of seeing and doing things, our own fixed ideas of morality (especially sexual morality) our own preferred style and mood of worship? I still recall the warning of the late Mgr. McReavy, delivered at my first, breathtaking Easter Vigil in the seminary, that liturgy can become an end in itself, “whether it be trad liturgy or pop, folksy or dignified”.
As Joshua faces the Israelites (and us) with a choice, so does Jesus face His disciples (and us). Are we prepared to accept His claim to be the Bread of Life, His instruction to eat His flesh and drink His blood? Some of His followers are not, and His reaction to them is fascinating. He doesn’t say “Whoa! Hang on a minute! You haven’t understood. What I really mean is....” He lets them go with the Parthian shot that they lack the spirit (or more accurately “the Spirit”) to accept Him. Furthermore, He compels the Twelve, His chosen inner circle, to answer the same question. They too must say “Yea” or “Nay”. They too must decide.
If the Twelve had decided to leave, what would that have meant for Jesus’ mission, for salvation history? We shall never know, because Peter, the chosen leader, speaks for them all, and commits them to faith and to following. He would have had no more idea than the leavers what Jesus’ words meant—they would have conveyed nothing until the Last Supper, and those new words spoken over the bread and wine—but he is prepared to entrust himself, and the Church, entirely to Jesus. What about us?
