21st SUNDAY (B)

“FIRST IMPRESSIONS” 21st SUNDAY -B- August 25, 2024 Joshua 24: 1-2a, 15-17, 18b; Psalm 34; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6: 60-69 by Jude Siciliano, OP

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Dear Preachers:

I find the reading from Ephesians an embarrassment and difficult to read to a modern congregation. How would they hear, “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. for the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church”? The second readings these Sundays have been a sequential reading from Ephesians. So, today we arrive at this difficult part of the letter. Some people are frustrated by it because they think it reflects some sexism that appears in other parts of the Lectionary.

At the time the letter was written women were thought inferior to men, the property of their husbands and were to be submissive to the male members of their families. We can say that times have changed and we recognize over the centuries the struggle all women, especially poor and women of color, have endured to achieve justice and equal standing with men. There is more to be done in society, our church, and in our own thinking. Still, today’s Scripture is not helpful, especially when used in preaching and Bible classes.

Paul’s letter can also be a strong distraction from Jesus’ word about believing in him and eating his flesh and drinking his blood. These words also cause difficulties for some hearers today.

A dominant biblical theme is that of Covenant. The Joshua reading centers on the covenant between the people and God. Joshua reminds them of what God has done for them and warns about the opposition they will face trying to stay faithful to God. Bottom line: Joshua asks them to decide for themselves if they will serve God. He summarizes what he and his family will do, with a statement parents in the pews today might be trying to affirm in their own families, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” These days, with so many dropping away from our church community, many parents feel they have failed setting an example of teaching their children the importance of faith and belonging to a believing community.

Some of us grew up in churches with a majority of people of the same ethnic background. Today many parishes are flourishing because of the influx of diverse people from Latin and Asian countries. The people Joshua was addressing were from victorious groups that had conquered large areas of Palestine from Canaanite kingdoms. Joshua had led the people into the land God had promised them. He was not only a military conqueror, but facilitated renewal of the covenant between the people and God.

Previously they may have had strong bonds among themselves, as we may have experienced in our parishes, but Joshua wants the community to draw together, not because of common ancestry, social, or political ties, but by their agreement to live in covenant with one another and with God. Thus, what unites those of us at worship today, whatever our background, or social affiliation, is that we are being drawn together by God to hear the Word of God and eat the Bread of Life. We are a renewed people and former separations among us are displaced through Jesus’ offering of himself today.

Back to Paul and his times. He took the marriage relationship of his time and used it as a metaphor for the relationship between God and the people. Much was renewed at God’s initiative by Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul could not change the marriage situation of his day, but he asks Christians living in that world to live in a radically different way. Did you notice that he said, “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ”? Literally it would be: “Be subordinate to one another; obey one another; regard another as higher than oneself.”

So, it is not just a requirement applied to the wife, the child, or those without power. The husband, the master, is called to be subordinate, to obey and regard the “insignificant ones” as higher than himself. Jesus is posited as the model for this behavior since he freely humbled himself out of love for us.

Joshua is suggesting it would be foolish to choose any other god. He reminds the people what God had done for them, first initiating the relationship with them and then confirming it by great saving acts. Jesus’ disciples are also given a choice: to believe in him and his words, which Peter says, offer eternal life. Jesus’ words were not easy to accept and “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

The covenant God has made with us in Jesus is not to be taken lightly. Christ has given us a complete offering of himself. His self-surrendering love for his church eliminates any previous structures of male-domination and opens us to a way of mutual respect and self giving love. His disciples struggled to accept the gift of his flesh and blood. They must have realized if they accepted his self-offering then they too would have too follow the pattern of living he was revealing: which for many required leaving behind ways of former believing and choosing the new life he was offering them.

Jesus did not give an easy remedy for the doubts his disciples had in reaction to his words, nor did he water-down impact those words had on them. What he was asking them, as he asks us today, is to be open to the gift of faith God was offering them, “… No one can come to me unless it is granted them by my Father.”

Only in faith can we receive “words of spirit and life.” With such faith we can enter into and live the mystery of the incarnation and begin to possess and experience eternal life now.

Click here for a link to this Sunday’s readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082524.cfm

JUSTICE BULLETIN BOARD

If it does not please you to serve the Lord, decide today whom you will serve—Joshua 24: 15

A friend of mine sent me the following small story that I want to share with you—When they were small, I took my three children on a field trip to explore an older Catholic church abundantly adorned with colorful stained-glass and brightly-painted statues. My youngest son was around four years of age at the time. As we quietly visited the faces that gazed down on us from lofty pedestals, he addressed each statue with the words, “No, it’s not you!” When we reached the imposing figure of the Sacred Heart, my son looked back at me and declared, “Yes. . .this one’s God!” “Why is THIS one God?” I asked. “Well,” he replied, “because God’s heart is always on the outside.”

It must be hard for the Lord to gaze upon us with such great selfless love and find that love unrequited in so many instances. God knows that one cannot be forced to love another and only love freely given is genuine love. So today’s scriptures are quite clear: accept or reject the Lord. For discipleship to be authentic, it must be a free choice. Have you ever sat down and given yourself time to consider who it is that you serve? Who it is that you would love without condition?

For us, as the laity, we must know what we are choosing. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it”(1816). The Vatican II document, The Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People, adds, “Cooperating as citizens of this world in all that has to do with the construction and regulation of the temporal order, the laity should, by the light of faith, endeavor to find the higher motives that should govern their behavior in the home and in professional, cultural and social life. . .The laity should vitalize their lives with charity and, to the extent of each person’s capability, give concrete expression to it in works” (IV,16).

Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director
Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries
Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC

FAITH BOOK

Mini reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book” is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home.

From today’s Gospel reading:

Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master to whom shall we go
You have the words of eternal life.”

Reflection:

When we eat and drink the meal offered us at this Eucharist do we realize the choice Jesus gave his disciples is also put before us? But the very fact we come forward to eat and drink is a sign of the Spirit’s life in us and that Spirit will enable us to say what Peter said, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

So we ask ourselves:

• Do our daily choices reveal to others our choice to follow Jesus?
• How can we further commit ourselves to him today?

POSTCARDS TO DEATH ROW INMATES

“One has to strongly affirm that condemnation to the death penalty is an inhuman measure that humiliates personal dignity, in whatever form it is carried out."
— Pope Francis

Inmates on death row are the most forgotten people in the prison system. Each week I am posting in this space several inmates’ names and locations. I invite you to write a postcard to one or more of them to let them know that: we have not forgotten them; are praying for them and their families; or, whatever personal encouragement you might like to give them. If the inmate responds, you might consider becoming pen pals.

Please write to:

• Frank Chambers #0071799 (On death row since 3/10/1994)
• Jeffrey Kandies #0221506 (4/20/1994)
• Vincent Wooten #0453231 (4/29/19940

----Central Prison, P.O. 247, Phoenix, MD 21131

Please note: Central Prison is in Raleigh, NC., but for security purposes, mail to inmates is processed through a clearing house at the above address in Maryland.

For more information on the Catholic position on the death penalty go to the Catholic Mobilizing Network: http://catholicsmobilizing.org/resources/cacp/

On this page you can sign “The National Catholic Pledge to End the Death Penalty.” Also, check the interfaith page for People of Faith Against the Death Penalty: http://www.pfadp.org/

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