by Br Julian McDonald cfc
Joshua said to all the people: “If you will not serve the Lord, choose today whom you wish to serve ,,, As for me and my House, we will serve the Lord. We have no intention of deserting the Lord our God who brought us out of Egypt ,,, We will serve the Lord, for he is our God,” Joshua 24: 1-2, 15-18
Simon Peter answered Jesus: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6: 60-69
Today’s gospel-reading is the fifth and final part of John’s explanation of what Jesus meant when he proclaimed to his audience that he was the Bread of Life sent by God for the world.
Over the last four Sundays, we have heard how Jesus had been pursued by crowds, decreasing in number, since the miracle of the loaves and the fish. He had challenged them for chasing after him for whatever material things they could get. He proceeded to explain that what he was offering them was far more than material goods. It was spiritual food for eternal life, and that he himself was God’s gift of self to them out of love, and that, as such, he, Jesus was the Bread of Life.
Many in the audience could not cope with what Jesus had asserted. Their inability to cope implied that they could not accept that the God in whom they claimed to believe could express love for them through other people and ordinary things and events. Perhaps, therein lies one of our struggles. Are we more comfortable with a God looking down on us protectively from on high or a God who reaches out to us in and through the people we encounter each day and with whom we join in celebrating Eucharist every weekend?
When Jesus identified himself as the Bread of Life for the world, the crowd in front of him all but evaporated, among them many who had called themselves his disciples. John simply pointed out that many who had declared that they were disciples of Jesus, by walking away, had stated in action, that what Jesus had asserted, was really beyond belief. John stated, without qualification: “After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him” (John 6: 66). These were all in the congregation who had gathered to listen to Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum, where they had heard him say that no disciple could ever follow him without the help of God. Their departure must have left Jesus so devastated that he turned to the twelve who remained and asked: “What about you, do you, too, want to go away?” (John 6: 67)
However, Peter’s response on behalf of his friends not only demonstrated that he had grasped something of what Jesus had asserted but had given his Master some hope that all his efforts had not been in vain: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6: 67-69). Probably, without knowing all the implications of what he had said, Peter had committed himself and the rest of his little group into sticking with Jesus on a journey into an unknown future. I wonder if those disciples who had walked away somehow sensed just how heavy the demands of following Jesus might be, demands to which they realised they themselves would not be able to measure up.
The gospel-readings of these last five weeks and their complementary first-readings from Kings (2), Exodus, Proverbs and Joshua have together been an account of how God had cared first for the Israelites under the guidance of Moses and Joshua and, subsequently, has cared for all who have walked in the footsteps of Jesus, offering them spiritual nourishment and support through the Christian community we call the Church. As disciples of Jesus, we, too, have belonged to the crowd that has listened to Jesus’ discourse on the Bread of Life. By implication, we, like Peter and his small group, are challenged to respond to Jesus’ question: “Do you, too, want to leave?” We know that some of our number have left to follow other paths. They have been discouraged by the failures of Church leaders to care for and protect vulnerable members of the flock they had committed themselves to lead. They have been asking why many of our young people have not found life, encouragement and life-giving challenge in their local parishes. They have seen the local church communities, to which their parents have been faithful, unable to energise and appeal to them. Perhaps they have been seduced by a materialistic world that rejects any or all of the lifegiving principles for living taught by Jesus and embodied in his Gospel? Maybe some of us have dare to ask ourselves the question: “Why do I stay?”
But why do we stay? I suggest that it is because of how we have seen the giants of our faith community radiate the love of God and the message of Jesus through the way they care for others and the way in which they reach out to the poor, the needy and the rejected. We sit beside some of these giants of faith in our parish pews every weekend. We see them as volunteers reaching out to the hungry and homeless as members of Night Patrol and workers at the Matt Talbot Hostel feeding, clothing and providing accommodation for street-people.
It’s the inspiration of selfless ordinary followers that encourages us to hang in and say: “Lord, to whom shall we go, for you have the words of eternal life.”
In today’s first reading we listen to Joshua encouraging the Israelites to commit themselves to the one whom they knew had genuinely cared for them. They unanimously confirmed: “We too (like our ancestors) will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” In our Churches this coming weekend, we will hear the conclusion of Jesus’ discourse on the Bread of Life, That discourse has been articulated for us by John, the Evangelist, and his theology of the Eucharist. He recapitulated that theology in his account of the Last Supper in which he taught that partaking in the Eucharist implied our reaching out in service to others, service demonstrated by Jesus in washing the feet of his disciples.
How then might we renew our commitment to Jesus, the Bread of Life this Sunday? I suggest that when we say “Amen” to the priest who holds up communion to us, we might hear him say as St Augustine suggested: “Behold who you are” (that is Jesus the Bread of Life), “become what you receive!” (namely life-giving bread for others).
