A Homily – The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Joshua 24:1-2,15-18

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 33(34):2-3,16-23

Second Reading – Ephesians 5:21-32

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

The Gospel According to John 6:60-69 © 

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 In ancient times the Hebrew people, also known as the Habiru or the Apiru, the Iberu and the Amarru, were a polytheistic people. These people, who later became known as the Israelites, having been organized into thirteen tribes by the patriarch Jacob from a diverse group of merchants and pirates, exiles and runaway slaves, who centuries later became known as the Judeans, after the tribe of Judah which rose to preeminence among them and had Jerusalem for its capital, these people believed in the real presence of many deities. These people crafted an image of their own God, not as the law giver, but as the law itself, the universal law which binds all people, and they promoted the power of their God, as the greatest of all.

 The leadership of these people elevated these ideals, insisting that they could not be represented by totems, effigies, graven images, or images of any kind. Their God was a principle, their God was JUSTICE writ large and characterized by goodness, humility and mercy.

 And though this ideal was established, the people could not resist the lure of popular conviction that held sway throughout the ancient world and in all of the communities around them. They continued to believe in the minor deities of personified nature, in the divinity of kings and heroes, in their power to persuade the spirits of earth and water, air and fire, of their ancestors to act on their behalf, to influence their fortune, to give them a winning hand and to strike down their enemies.

 The sacred texts are replete with stories of the people, unwilling to walk away from these superstitions. The prophets, going all the way back to Moses, excoriated them for doing so, and lamented their failure in the end.  

 Christians developed a more nuanced understanding of the divine reality after Jesus, one in which the God of the Hebrew people merges with the God of the philosophers as understood by the Greeks and Romans.

 The popular conception of God among the ancient Hebrews (not the ideal manifestation of the divine as represented in the law), was a God of nomads, a God of shepherds, a God that did not have any understanding of borders or boundaries, a God that travelled with the people wherever the roamed, crossing rivers and mountains and seas. Their God was a God of aliens, exiles and fugitives, of wanderers living in foreign lands.

 When they were beset by the authorities in those places, powers and principalities, kings and queens, who threatened them with bondage, the God of the Hebrews became of God of war, rebellion and insurrection, their God became a God of power.

 Understand this:

 All of these images of God fall short of the ideals that had been set forth by the patriarchs, as well as the divine reality that Jesus preached.

 God, the creator of the universe, is a God beyond all knowing, eternal and infinite.

 God is not limited to the plains and the fields, to the mountains and seas; God is not bound by the movements of planets and stars, of galaxies and galactic clusters, God is the God of all reality, and everything in it

 According to Jesus, God is love, and love is the whole of the law that binds us. 

 Be mindful.

 If you intend to seek God, look into your heart; you will find God in loving, and in loving you will be blessed.

 Praise God through works of love. God has no name, therefore exalt God’s loving work in creation; you will find it in the love you receive and the love you share.

 Seek glory through works of service. Know that God is great because God cares.

 Listen to your neighbors, rescue them from fear, God’s light will shine on you, through faith, in hope and love.

 Know this.

 With God there is no shame. God does not respect station, rank, class or wealth. God loves everyone the same…sinner and saint.

 Remember.

 Do not look for God to save you from your troubles. We are all Job in a way. We are called to the same faith; trust in God and you will come to understand how transient our troubles are.

 All pain is temporary, but love lasts forever. There is no rescue in this world unless it comes from your neighbor, another human being, your friends and family…even the stranger may appear to you as a messenger of the divine…look for God there.

 Do not fear.

 Speak the truth.

 Avoid evil.

 Do good.

 God see all, hears all, knows all, even your innermost thoughts, secrets, desires, and motivations. God knows you as you know yourself.

 Keep your mind in the present; do not focus on the good things that may or may not come.

 God’s love is always with us, though we only feel it in the present moment, turn on your heel and you will find it.

 Listen to them that teach hope…ignore the fear-mongers; this is the way to peace.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle and know that Jesus knew nothing of the church, but he did love his people. Jesus gave himself up to prosecution, torture and death so that they would not be killed on account of his mission. This was a loving, and a holy action, and through it, Jesus pointed to the way he encouraged his followers to take.

 These were human activities, done in a human context.

 Know this.

 Jesus said nothing about the submission of women, in fact the Gospels preserve the following truths:

 The first Apostle was a woman, Jesus encountered her at the well and after his talk with her she converted her whole community into followers of the way.

 The only time Jesus is ever corrected, he is corrected by a woman of Syro-Phoenician descent, and Jesus initially refused to help because she was not “a member of his tribe.” She scolded Jesus him in the spirit of their shared faith, and when she did Jesus relented.

 Only his female followers stayed with him until the end of his life, bearing witness to his death on the cross, and it was a woman to whom the resurrected Christ first showed himself. It was she who brought the other disciples to the knowledge that he had risen.

 Remember this when you consider how authority in the church should be divided between men and women; remember that in his own time, it was the women among his followers who consistently led the way.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, it gives us an example of just where the early church began to deviate from the teaching of Jesus, and the lived experience of the way he taught.

 In the final paragraph we are given the thoughts of saint Peter, who would have us believe that he follows Jesus because Jesus has the “secret” to eternal life, as if this were the purpose of the Gospel as if “believing” that Jesus is the “Holy One of God” (whatever that means), is the key to receiving the gift of eternal life.

 In the fourth paragraph we are asked to believe that God parcels out access to Jesus, to the truth, to the reality of life everlasting, allowing some to come to it while refusing others, according to some hidden plan.

 None of this scheme is true, it is the concoction of lawyers and pitch-men.

 Here is the Gospel:

 God loves you and you are saved. You are saved already. You are not saved for anything that you have done, you did not earn your salvation, you are saved by grace because God loves you.

The promise of salvation is not that you will be spared from suffering and torment in hell, or that when you are judged God will forgive you. God has already forgiven you; you are already saved.

God has prepared you, and everyone for eternal life.

 Believe it!

 Let the goodness of the promise flow through you now and start living this life, your only life, as if it were true.

 We are not called to believe in the idea that Jesus is this or that, the Holy One of God, we are called to act on the principles of his faith, to live lives of charity and humble service to each other, for this is the law and love is the whole of it.

First Reading – Joshua 24:1-2,15-18

We Will Serve the Lord, for He is Our God

Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem; then he called the elders, leaders, judges and scribes of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Then Joshua said to all the people, ‘If you will not serve the Lord, choose today whom you wish to serve, whether the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are now living. As for me and my House, we will serve the Lord.’

  The people answered, ‘We have no intention of deserting the Lord and serving other gods! Was it not the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery, who worked those great wonders before our eyes and preserved us all along the way we travelled and among all the peoples through whom we journeyed? What is more, the Lord drove all those peoples out before us, as well as the Amorites who used to live in this country. We too will serve the Lord, for he is our God.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 33(34):2-3,16-23

The Lord, the Salvation of the Righteous

Those who seek the Lord lack no blessing.

Alleluia, alleluia!

I shall bless the Lord for ever:

  my mouth will proclaim his praise.

My soul will glory in the Lord:

  let the meek listen and rejoice.

Join me and proclaim the greatness of the Lord:

  together let us exalt his name.

I sought the Lord and he listened to me:

  he rescued me from all my fears.

Look to him and he will shine upon you,

  and you will not be put to shame.

This poor man called, and the Lord answered him

  and saved him from all his many troubles.

The angel of the Lord will build defences

  round those who fear the Lord:

  he will come to their rescue.

Taste and see that the Lord is kind:

  happy the man who hopes in him.

Revere the Lord, his saints:

  for those who fear him are never destitute.

The rich are hungry and in want,

  but for those who seek the Lord

  there is no lack of good things.

Let peace be all your quest and aim.

Come, children, listen to me:

  I shall teach you the fear of the Lord.

Who is the man who desires life,

  who wants to live long to enjoy good things?

Do not let your tongue speak evil:

  let your lips not utter deceit.

Avoid evil, do good:

  seek peace and follow it.

The eyes of the Lord are on the just

  and his ears hear their cries;

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil:

  he wipes their memory from the earth.

The just cried out, and the Lord listened

  and freed them from all their many troubles.

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted:

  the crushed in spirit he will save.

Many are the troubles of the just,

  but the Lord will free them from all of them.

He will protect all their bones:

  not one will be broken.

Their own evil destroys sinners:

  those who hate the just will be punished.

The Lord will redeem the souls of his servants:

  those who put their hope in him will not be punished.

Amen.

Let peace be all your quest and aim.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 5:21-32

Christ Loves the Church, Because it is His Body

Give way to one another in obedience to Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything. Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. He made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because it is his body – and we are its living parts. For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body. This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 6:60-69 © 

Who shall we go to? You are the Holy One of God

After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’

Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

‘It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me unless the Father allows him.’ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him.

Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘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.’

 

A Homily – The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)