21st Sunday in Ordinary Time B – August 25, 2024

 21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time B – August 25, 2024

Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b; Ephesians 5: 21-32; John 6:60-69

 

Theme: “Do you also want to leave?”

For five consecutive Sundays, we have been deeply meditating on the 'Bread of Life' discourse, a sacred text in chapter six of the Gospel of John. Today, as we reach the culmination of this spiritual journey, we are invited to choose between continuing to follow Jesus or leaving him. In our first reading, Joshua, as the leader, asked his fellow Israelites to decide whether they accept to serve God, their Lord, or serve the pagan gods. We, too, after reflecting on the Bread of Life Discourse, our Holy Mother Church calls us to reexamine our discipleship and make a wise decision to follow and serve our Lord Jesus, who has the Word of eternal life. This decision must be visible through our love for each other and Jesus' Church. This is the kind of love Saint Paul exhorts the Ephesian married believers in our second reading. He calls them to a strong mutual love, using Jesus's love for his Church as an example.

Our Gospel is the conclusion of the Bread of Life Discourse. Recalling its context helps us understand it better. Everything started with the sign of the multiplication of loaves and feeding over five thousand people. Over five thousand people followed Jesus because they had seen how Jesus healed the royal official’s son (see John 4:46-540) and the man at the pool on the Sabbath (see John 5:1-9). Jesus fed all of them with just five barley loaves and two fish that he multiplied miraculously (6:1-15).

The crowd misinterpreted Jesus’ actions as that of royalty and attempted to make him king. Being aware of their plan and disagreeing with them, Jesus fled from them in the evening of that day. The disciples left on a boat, going across the sea to Capernaum without Jesus. It was dark, and the sea was stirred up because of the strong wind when they saw Jesus walking on the water toward them. They were afraid. Jesus told them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” (6:14-23. The lectionary omits this passage.)

The following day, the crowd who ate the miraculous food followed Jesus again. Jesus revealed that they did not look for him because they saw the sign but because of the miraculous food they ate. He then invited them to work not for the food that perishes but for the food that gives eternal life. The crowd requested a sign that they could see first before they believed in him. According to them, this sign must be greater than the manna that Moses gave to their ancestors in the desert during their journey from Egypt to the promised land. In his answer,  Jesus first clarified that his Father God, not Moses, gave the manna to their ancestors as they mistakenly thought. Second, the greater sign they requested was the true bread God “gives” them. When they asked Jesus to give them that “true bread,” Jesus declared that he was that “true bread,” the Bread of Life, which upon consuming, one would never hunger and thirst again. Jesus assured them that his will, which is also his Father’s will, is to raise everyone who believes in him on the last day for eternal life (vv. 24-40).

In hearing that, the crowd, whom the narrator identified as the Jews from that moment, murmured because they knew Jesus and his family very well as they lived together in Galilee. For them, Jesus was not someone of high status, but how he referred to himself as the living bread. In his response, Jesus taught them about his relationship with his Father and his being the bread of life (vv. 41-51).

Then, the Jews disagreed with Jesus, asking how the man Jesus could give them his flesh to eat. In his answer, Jesus again teaches them that his flesh and blood are true food and drink. Believers who consume this true food remain in him and he in them, and they will have life because of him in the same way he has life because of his Father (vv. 52-59.)

Our today’s text picks up from here. It is a narrative account with images. It begins with the crowd murmuring about the impossibility of accepting Jesus’ teaching (v. 60). It continues with Jesus’ further teaching (vv. 61-65). It ends with the crowd’s final decision to leave Jesus and return to their former lives (v. 66), the Twelve Apostles’ decision to continue following Jesus (vv. 68-69), and Jesus’ final comments, the verses that the lectionary omitted (vv. 70-71).

The text begins with the Jews’ question, “This saying is hard; who can accept it? (V. 60). Notice, in the passage we heard last Sunday, their question focused on Jesus, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (v. 52), but here, their question focuses on themselves. They recognize that they are the ones to decide whether they want to follow Jesus or return to their former way. They are in a crisis moment. Jesus knows how they murmure and struggle to decide because his teaching chock them. While they have free will to make their own decision, Jesus tries to help them with further information, which can convince them to believe in him and decide wisely. First, he tells them that in the future, they will see him ascending to where he was before (V. 62). Here, he probably alludes to the ascension day when he will go up to heaven in the presence of his disciples. Second, he emphasizes the importance of faith in him and the role of the Holy Spirit in their decision-making. Because Jesus’ words are spirit and life, these Jews should be in spirit, not in the flesh, and they should believe in him first before they decide (vv. 63-65). Because they are in the flesh and do not believe in Jesus, they finally decide to quit their discipleship at this point and return to their former way of life (v. 66). Jesus then turns toward his Twelve Apostles and asks them if they, too, want to leave him. Through Peter, all the Twelve renew their loyalty to Jesus, “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.” (Vv. 67-69). (The lectionary omitted the last two verses (70-71), in which Jesus mentions that one of the Twelve, Judas, whom he calls “devil,” will betray him.) Their response echoes the response of the chosen people to Joshua in our first reading. Joshua asked his fellow Israelites to choose if they wanted to serve the Lord, who freed them from slavery in Egypt, or the false gods. He told them that he and his household had already chosen to serve the Lord. The people swore they would never forsake the Lord to serve the false gods. They recognized the marvelous deeds the Lord has accomplished for them (see Joshua 24:15-17).

We are at the end of our Five-Sunday meditation on the Bread of Life Discourse. It is time for us, too, to decide whether to continue to follow Jesus or leave him. Like this crowd in our Gospel, maybe we, too, accepted to be baptized and baptized our children for reasons other than faith in Jesus and accepting his teaching. Remember, the decision we are called to make today is based on whether or not we accept Jesus’ teachings and believe in him. We cannot say that we are Jesus’ followers if we do not believe in him and accept and observe his teaching, which is the teaching of the Church. When we do not believe that the bread and wine the priests consecrate at Masses become Jesus’ Body and Blood and that the Eucharist is the spiritual food for our souls and gives us eternal life, then, like the Jews of our Gospel, we stop being Jesus’ followers. When we accept all the lessons Jesus taught in this Bread of Life Discourse, believe that the Eucharist we receive in the Holy Communion is Jesus’ Body and Blood, and gives everlasting life to our souls, then, like the Twelve apostles, our decision is to continue to be Jesus’ followers.

Before we make this critical and personal decision, let us take the necessary time to review again all of Jesus’ teachings in this Bread of Life Discourse. Here are the recapitulating points: Jesus cares for us when we follow him. He feeds us like he fed the five thousand people (the first Sunday of our meditation). He invites us to work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which is to unite with him in the sacrament of the Eucharist at Mass (second Sunday). We are on our earthly journey to heaven, where we will meet God. So, to not starve with hunger, we need Jesus, the bread of life, to sustain us spiritually (third Sunday). His Flesh and Blood we receive in the Holy Communion make us remain in him and he in us, and have eternal life (fourth Sunday). This union transforms our lives. We become one with Jesus, he, who is the head, and we are the members of his body, which is the Church that Saint Paul talks about when he uses the analogy of love between wife and husband in today’s second reading (fifth Sunday).

What is your and my decision then? Do you/I want to leave or continue to follow Jesus? As for me, Fr. Leon Ngandu, quoting Joshua in today’s first reading, I decide to continue to serve the Lord. Amen.

Rev. Leon Ngandu, SVD