Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Eph 5:21-32
Jn 6:60-69
The readings and gospel each present a problem. The reading from the 24th chapter of Joshua is a problem because it is discontinuous. After hearing the first two verses, we jump to verses fifteen to eighteen.
Joshua had led the people into the promised land. He is now a dying old man giving his valedictory. From verses two to fifteen Joshua reviewed the history of what God had done for His people, how He led them in their journey. In the edited reading we only heard that the people pledged their loyalty. Loyalty to God was the primary condition of the covenant. Loyalty to the one with whom it is made is always the principal demand of a covenant. This includes the marriage covenant.
The reading from Ephesians is a problem because some hearers respond to it in hostile, defensive, angry, or dismissive fashion. Or they engage in the kind of bullying against which there is no defense; the bullying that involves words ending in: ism, ist, and phobia. Once that starts it is best to give up your lunch money as well. There is no possibility of winning. Or even being heard
Some preachers would prefer to skip the verse: "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands." But then would have to ignore that which precedes it: "Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ."
The letter compares the relationship between husband and wife to the relationship between Christ and His Church. Thus we hear, "even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her . . . so husbands should love their wives as their own body." That kind of love may be more difficult than subordinating oneself.
We cannot separate Christ from the Church of which he is the head.
In the ideal marriage husband and wife subordinate their individual needs and desires to the needs and desires of the other. Both must be constantly aware that loving the other means honoring, obeying, respecting and periodically subordinating oneself to the other. Both are called in turn to subordinate themselves to God.
As one commentary puts it, "Just as the God of old encountered his people with a covenant of love and fidelity, so Christ encounters Christian spouses in the sacrament of marriage. He remains with them so that by their mutual self-giving spouses will love each other with enduring fidelity. . . "
In the sacrament of marriage both man and woman both woman and man are called into a relationship of dignity and equality. The common denominator in most failed marriages is the lack or loss of the mutual self-giving and sacrifice that are crucial to marriage. The "irreconcilable differences" that seem to be the excuse for the failure of many celebrity marriages is, in fact, the idea of you do your thing and I'll do mine. And don't bother me.
The problem with John's Gospel is that we need to know the previous thirty verses so as to understand what the disciples were "murmuring" about.
Many of the disciples could not accept the revelation of Jesus as Bread of Life, as The Word Made Flesh. They could not accept Jesus as the revelation of the Father. For this reason many of the disciples returned to their former ways of life and no longer followed Jesus. Jesus even gave the twelve apostles the option to leave. But Peter, acting as their spokesman said, "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."
This is a radical statement of faith that we must keep in mind because it describes the necessary growth and evolution of faith in each of us. That faith is nurtured in the triple presence of Christ: his presence in the assembly of people at prayer, his presence in the word proclaimed in scripture and in His real presence in the Eucharist.
Through most of the past week the gospel readings at Mass have focused on being called and chosen. Today's gospel reading reminds us that those who are called, that those who are chosen, that those who are invited, are free to reject the revelation that is Jesus. Many did. Many do today.
Just as the Israelites forgot and rejected the covenant with God over and over, just as some of those who enter into the covenant of marriage ignore the terms of that covenant,
There are those who reject the revelation of Jesus as Bread of Life, as the Word come down from Heaven. It is sad.
___________________________________________
It struck me yesterday as I was proofreading this homily that in 1994 the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time was on 24 August. Sometime that afternoon in the novitiate chapel in Jamaica Plain, these were the readings for Mass the day our class entered the novitiate. A pleasant surprise
The photos below are from Taiwan over the years, a place I never would have visited were it not for entering the Society.
A women's choir entering Chiang Kai-shek concert hall for a rehearsal. It was blazingly hot and humid.
No comments:
Post a Comment