Sunday 25th of August 2024 - Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Joshua 24:1-2,15-18/ Psalm 33(34)/ Ephesians 5:21-32/ John 6:60-69

We face choices every day in life, from choosing what shampoo to buy at the supermarket to deciding which career path to follow. Sometimes the choices we have can be overwhelming with some of them having very little consequence while others can dramatically affect our lives and the lives of others. We can only make good choices when we have sufficient information to base a decision on. If we make a poor or wrong choice it can be possible to backtrack and take a different path but sometimes such a recovery can be difficult if not impossible.

One of the things that marks us humans out as different from any other creature is that we can make a choice. A choice between good or bad, right or wrong. God could have created everything to follow his laws of nature and for all living things simply to live by their created instincts without any free will. God is the definition of love and desires to share his love. For love to be meaningful and unconditional it must be given freely. God chooses to love us unconditionally and wants us to love him in the same way. Unconditional love is a love without strings attached, without coercion, love that is offered freely. It is not founded on what might be received in return. Love is given for the purpose of wanting happiness for the recipient. Love should not be entrapping or restrictive, it should provide freedom. God never imposes himself on us, he wants us to love him because we choose to not because we are threatened or conditioned in some way.

Our Christian faith does not enslave us, it gives us freedom, freedom to choose, to choose to follow the one true God or, to choose a false god, a god of self-interest, possessions, excessive wealth, or power. We are called to make the choice as Joshua, his household, and the people in the first reading were called to make their choice and as the followers of Jesus were called to make theirs in the gospel passage.

People today still choose to walk away from Christ as they did in the gospel passage. There are many reasons for this but most often it is not because of a problem with Christ or his teaching but more about disputes with the church or a conflict with the call of the world. While Jesus may still be seen as the teacher, the one who calls people to a just way of life, or even the saviour of the world, people are still walking away from him. Is this because of the church failing to do what it is called to do? Does it fail to respond to the concerns people have? Are its clergy disengaged? Is it seen as intractable and over authoritarian? The church is still in development, it has a human dimension that is not yet the spotless bride that Jesus intends it to become. Even with all its flaws the church remains the way to God, the guardian of the teaching left by Jesus, and the provider of the sacramental life we need. It is the church that guides us from the baptismal font to the graveside. We remain free to walk away but we cannot walk away from Christ’s church but claim to remain with Christ. The church and Christ are intimately linked as a bride and bridegroom are linked.

Paul is often criticised for his apparent attitude towards women emanating from the letter to the Ephesians, writing him off because of the way he seems to speak about husbands being the head of their wives. To do this is to dismiss the point he is making about Jesus being joined to his church as a husband is joined to his bride. Paul is calling for mutual decision making, something that would have been radical in an era that did not value women or children. Paul is talking in religious terms rather than sociologically to make a point. In fact, Paul asks more of the husband than of the wife when it comes to sacrificial dedication. The husband must put the interests of his wife before those of his own just as Christ put the interests of us all before his. In equating the relationship between Christ and his church to that of a husband and wife, Paul is calling for a relationship of mutual love and respect, not only between married people but between all people.

Jesus asks us the same question he asked his apostles, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ We have a choice, our faith should help us answer with Peter and say, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life’. We must keep making this choice, to go to Christ or to go with what the world offers. Only Christ can lead us to eternal happiness, all other choices lead away from God and all that he promises to give us.

God Bless Brendan