Fr. Rick’s Homily: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 25, 2024
Jos 24:1-2a, 15-18b; Ps 34:2-3, 16-21; Eph 5:21-32; Jn 6:60-69
Today’s readings offer us a great view of human nature when under severe pressure and demands. Difficult decisions must be made. We follow our principles OR we rationalize, compromise and revert back to the more familiar norms of the culture we are living in or grew up in.
In the first reading from the Book of Joshua, the Israelites need to make the decision to follow the Lord or to get more tangled up in the gods of the Amorites. Walk out in faith or defer to the ‘devil we know’ rather than something potentially worse. In this decision Joshua challenges the people to recall all the Lord had done for them in their many battles and afflictions since leaving Egypt. Joshua then announces the decision of his house to follow the Lord. This was not an individual decision, but one which would follow his whole ‘household’, his descendants for generations. After considering Joshua’s decision and recalling God’s help in the past, the others also decided to serve the Lord.
In the Gospel today the disciples are still reeling from Jesus’ command last week to eat His flesh and drink His blood if they wanted to have LIFE. The demands of discipleship were too extreme and hard to accept, so many left and returned to their former ways of life. Not much wiggle room. Upon further consideration, Simon Peter realized there was no better option, “Master, to whom should we go?” Peter’s leadership and their prior relationship with Jesus convinced the TWELVE that they too would ‘serve the Lord”. Their decision would change the world in ways they could not even imagine.
We are challenged with a similar type of decision in the second reading today from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. Paul’s declaration that ‘wives should submit to their husbands in all things as to the Lord’ simply doesn’t translate in our modern American culture. The teaching is hard; who can accept it?! And Paul goes on to say that husbands should love their wives as Christ love the Church. And if that is not enough, he will later declare that the husband and wife are to submit to each other completely as to Christ. There is a lot implied here.
I have read many rationalizations for this reading by priests who declare that this simply doesn’t apply today because it comes out of the patriarchal cultures of Rome and Jerusalem and almost everywhere else. The constant in Christianity however, throughout cultures, is that we must submit to Christ throughout the teachings of the Church. Submitting our will to Christ is step one. We must follow, serve and trust. One of the major vocations in the Church designed to bring us closer to Christ is Matrimony. We should seek out spouses who have already submitted themselves to Christ. Test them. Support them. Love them. At our very best we are all works in process.
I’ve lived in the United States long enough to know that this is not the cultural norm. A serious discussion of religion might not even come up during the courting process. The Eucharist and the command to eat the Lord’s flesh is likely not a criterion used for dating or marriage. Most Catholics follow the secular norms without any great dilemma. The consequences last for generations. Studies and surveys indicate the strongest determinant of whether a woman will continue as an active Catholic, is whether the girl’s father was an active Catholic. They will expect to be treated (more or less) as Christ loved the Church…or not. Such a man might require a bit of a wait.
It might be equally hard for a young man to find a woman who is consciously submitting her life to Christ. One who is part of a community that supports her religious formation and commitment.
These are complicated issues and surely there ARE some period and cultural differences that need to be understood. Having grown up in the baby-boomer generation where we were famous for questioning anything traditional and institutional, it’s fascinating and tragic to look back on what has replaced the neighborhood church and a sacramental world view. What organizing principals are guiding us? “To whom should we go?” Or maybe more accurately, “To whom DID we go?” How well do we mirror Joshua’s decision, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” How will that affect ‘our house’? Our individual families, our Church ‘household’, our national ‘household’?
The real sticking point for all us is whether we will actually submit our whole life to Christ, until the very end… as did the Apostles…at least most of them. AND do so through the Church which He established and promised to guide until the end time. If not, “To whom will we go?”
Eucharist and Matrimony AND HOLY ORDERS AND THE AVOWED SINGLE LIFE require us to make a total gift of self. Ultimately to God. This is rarely easy.
- How have you prepared to submit everything to Christ and the Church?
- How did your spouse or your best friends make their commitment to Christ?
- Who prepared you for your life-long vocation and who supports you?
- Who sets the cultural norms in American culture?