21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Do you have what it takes to follow the Lord?  Our readings this week give us a challenge – do we follow society or do we follow the Lord.  Not everything God says is easy to follow.  Not everything Jesus said or taught was easy for his disciples to accept.  

The Word for the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time
Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Psalm 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21
Ephesians 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32
John 6:60-69

Our first reading comes from the book of Joshua.  Joshua stood beside Moses and Aaron as they marched out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom, and now has taken over from Moses to lead the Israelites into the promised land.  Unfortunately, as the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, there were others already living there, forcing them into some military engagements.  After winning a series of successful struggles, Joshua has now gathered all the people together to give them a choice… to follow the gods of their ancestors, or to follow the Lord.

Our Gospel from John offers a similar challenge from Jesus to his disciples.  Jesus has concluded his “bread of life” discourse.  He has revealed what he knows to be true about himself and his Father.  He then turns to his disciples, who were all murmuring about what he had said, and ask them, “does this shock you?”  What Jesus has said if difficult for many to follow, and as the passage tells us, many of his disciples left.  Turning to the 12, Jesus asks them if they also want to leave, whereupon Peter says, “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”

Our second reading continues with our study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  Like our passages from Joshua and John, this passage from the letter to the Ephesians is seen by many to be equally challenging.  It is the passage where Paul instructs us to “be subordinate to one another out of reverence to Christ.”  It then continues, however, to one of the more contentious passages in modern times where Paul says, “wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.”  While this might seem like a slap in the face to all the Christian women of the world who have fought long and hard for parity with men, I would point out that Paul immediately follows this line with “Husbands, love your wives.”  In the light of our post-modern society, this particular reading from Paul is perhaps one of the most troubling when taken out of context.  When reading this passage, we not only need to consider the context of the text itself (that is, the entire passage, not just a single line), and the context of Paul’s life and times (the first century middle east where women and children were viewed as property).  So even though our modern ears consider this passage to be insensitive to women, it is, in the context of Paul’s life and times, extraordinarily progressive by raising the status of the wife as more than just mere property, but to that of a cherished partner in life and salvation.  Even so, the Church does recognize the sensitivity of the language, and in most parishes you will likely hear the shortened version of the reading – not only because it saves the homilist from having to explain the passage, but such a discussion would most certainly divert our focus from the themes of the first reading and the Gospel.  Remember however, that the key to understand Paul’s teaching in the opening lines, “be subordinate to one another.”  All other social context aside, this line itself is challenging for our age.

Final Thoughts:
To follow the Lord is to follow a path that runs counter to our social culture.  In a society that places an emphasis on self, the Lord calls us to serve others.  For as much as we like to think we’ve grown as a culture, Moses, Joshua, Jesus, and all the prophets both ancient and contemporary are still reminding us that to follow the Lord is to give of ourselves.  To borrow a sporting metaphor, “to leave it all out on the field.”  To use a phrase that my high school sophomore ethics teacher drilled into us, “sacrifice is the language of love.”  Love isn’t an act of feeling good, it’s an act of giving – an act of sacrifice.  That it can feel good is a perk, but that alone is not why we should give of ourselves.  

Giving of ourselves is not something most people do today, and for those who do, it’s generally only a part time gig.  That is, we give when we have the time, or if it’s something we personally care about.  Our giving of ourselves has become a very subjective and, dare I say, selfish.  For example, look at those who only attend weekly Mass “some of the time.”  They will give you countless reasons why they don’t attend regularly, but it all comes down to a selfish choice:  they chose not to go.  Put another way, they’re not choosing the path of Christ.  They’re like the disciples who left Jesus in today’s gospel.  They couldn’t go “all-in” with Jesus.

Following the Lord is not an easy choice, as scripture shows us time and again.  But all is not lost.  Sometimes we will falter, and as scripture has proven, thankfully, our Lord has the infinite mercy to forgive us and take us back.