Words of Everlasting Life

Scripture Reflection for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 23, 2015)

Scripture Readings:
Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Psalm 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21
Ephesians 5:21-32 or Ephesians 5:2a, 25-32
John 6:60-69

In my personal spiritual development, I have always found that one of the most beautiful, yet challenging, aspects of the Catholic faith is its vastness. With its social teaching, canon law, theology, and religious orders, the Catholic Church has much to offer the faithful in order to guide them more deeply into the faith. There will always be ways we can improve as Catholics; always more knowledge about the faith that we can obtain, and there will always be a new and unique way of being inspired by the message of the Gospel. Because of its vastness, our faith allows us to become a better person each and every day of our lives. At the same time though, the depth of our faith is what makes it difficult to embrace whole heartedly. How can one just naturally understand, agree with, accept, and joyfully practice every small detail of the faith? As someone who will be beginning to study for the priesthood, the Catholic faith is at the center of my life, but it is this one particular aspect that is sometimes intimidating and even a bit frustrating. There is always something new to learn, and if one wants to be a true disciple of Jesus, it is necessary to make much effort to understand all that he teaches, even if it is very difficult at first. I am often concerned as to whether or not I will be able to fully believe and preach everything this faith has to offer if I am indeed ordained a priest someday.

Because Catholicism is so immense, many Catholics today may find a particular aspect of their faith to be more challenging and less fulfilling than others. There are many examples of this. Most simply, some may struggle to understand why Catholics are required to go to Mass every Sunday. Many Catholics may struggle to see how practicing the faith is important and meaningful to their own lives. There are many who may struggle to personally experience the power of the Eucharist or to find meaning in suffering. In light of recent events in our country, many Catholics may find it particularly difficult to explain, accept, and defend the various social teachings of the Church such as its opposition to same-sex marriage. Others may simply find it challenging to fully grasp the things that Jesus proclaims in the Gospels. It is saddening to see many people abandon their faith simply because there is one particular aspect that to them is hard to accept. This is exactly what happens to the many people who chose to leave behind their way of life and begin to follow Jesus. Many people were drawn to Jesus and his words, but after Jesus proclaimed himself to be “the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,” his disciples are no longer compelled to follow him. They said: “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Jesus tries to encourage them, but as the story goes, “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

Jesus sees all these people leaving him behind, and then turns to his closest friends, the ones that he himself chose. He looks at them with love and asks them an interesting question: “Do you also want to leave?” This is almost exactly the same question that Joshua asks the Israelites in this week’s first reading.

Perhaps, as we go about studying and practicing our immense faith, we find some aspects to be difficult to grasp just like the disciples did when they first heard those words of Jesus. Sometimes we are heavily influenced by our friends, who, like what many of Jesus’ followers did in his day, have chosen to stray from one of our Lord’s teaching and pursue a different way of life. When it comes to living our faith life, we may often face the temptation to follow in their footsteps by accepting what is easy for us to believe, and simply avoid the parts that do not feel as compelling. As a result of this frustration, we may be tempted to abandon our vocation to become a better disciple of Jesus every day as many people have already done.

Peter’s response is: “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.”

Many people hear this difficult teaching of Jesus and decide to leave, but those that stay do so because they simply trust that Jesus is indeed speaking the truth when he says that his words are “spirit and life.” Those that remain with Jesus trust that he is the only one who speaks life-giving words. These same words that led some people away from Jesus are the words that attract his closest friends.

Given the choice between following our own thoughts and following the words of Christ, we are called to imitate the responses Joshua and Peter, who both chose to “serve the Lord.” May we allow ourselves to be drawn by God so that our faith will only increase in times of frustration, and that we may have a more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ because he truly has the words that lead to everlasting life.

Image: Cristo e gli apostoli. By Sergio bramante (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons