20210822 HARD TEACHINGS
22 August, 2021, Sunday, 21st Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Green.
First reading |
Joshua 24:1-2,15-18 © |
We will serve the Lord, for he is our God
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem; then he called the elders, leaders, judges and scribes of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Then Joshua said to all the people, ‘If you will not serve the Lord, choose today whom you wish to serve, whether the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are now living. As for me and my House, we will serve the Lord.’
The people answered, ‘We have no intention of deserting the Lord and serving other gods! Was it not the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery, who worked those great wonders before our eyes and preserved us all along the way we travelled and among all the peoples through whom we journeyed? What is more, the Lord drove all those peoples out before us, as well as the Amorites who used to live in this country. We too will serve the Lord, for he is our God.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 33(34):2-3,16-23 © |
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
I will bless the Lord at all times,
his praise always on my lips;
in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.
The humble shall hear and be glad.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
The Lord turns his face against the wicked
to destroy their remembrance from the earth.
The Lord turns his eyes to the just
and his ears to their appeal.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
They call and the Lord hears
and rescues them in all their distress.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted;
those whose spirit is crushed he will save.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Many are the trials of the just man
but from them all the Lord will rescue him.
He will keep guard over all his bones,
not one of his bones shall be broken.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Evil brings death to the wicked;
those who hate the good are doomed.
The Lord ransoms the souls of his servants.
Those who hide in him shall not be condemned.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Second reading |
Ephesians 5:21-32 © |
Christ loves the Church, because it is his body
Give way to one another in obedience to Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything. Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. He made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because it is his body – and we are its living parts. For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body. This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Jn6:63,68 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
Gospel | John 6:60-69 © |
Who shall we go to? You are the Holy One of God
After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?
‘It is the spirit that gives life,
the flesh has nothing to offer.
The words I have spoken to you are spirit
and they are life.
‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me unless the Father allows him.’ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him.
Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.’
HARD TEACHINGS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [JOS 24:1-2,15-18; PS 34:2-3,16-23; EPH 5:21-32; JN 6:60-69]
Like the disciples of our Lord, many of the people found Him inspiring. Many came to hear Jesus and receive healing from Him. After seeing Him perform the miracle of feeding the Five Thousand, they even wanted to make Him king. When Jesus escaped from them, they followed Him all the way to the other side of the Lake of Tiberias. When Jesus told them, “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” (Jn 6:33f) So Jesus began to expound to them that He is the Bread of life. However, if Jesus had just been content to speak of Himself as the “living bread that came down from heaven” as the Word of God, they could perhaps still accept Him. When Jesus declared that “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh”, they were taken aback as Jesus was going against their sacred laws that forbade them to take the blood of any animal, much less a human being. Jesus repeated this obligation to eat His flesh and drink His blood if they were to have eternal life. (Jn 6:52-56) Hence, we read, “after hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you?’ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him.”
This teaching on the Eucharist as truly His flesh and blood, His real presence and not just as the Word of God, as Catholics believe, of course is not accepted by many Protestant Christians. They see it only as a symbol of His presence when they consume the bread and wine, and as a symbol of the Word of God. Non-Catholic Christians tend to focus exclusively on the Word of God that gives life. This is why the Eucharist is not a major celebration among non-Catholic Christians in their worship. The truth remains that the Eucharist is truly His Body and Blood because Jesus was anticipating the Passover Meal with a farewell. He replaced the Passover with His own Passover when He offered His Body and Blood in the form of bread and wine as a memorial of His imminent passion, death and resurrection. The New Covenant is established through the sacrifice of His life on the cross. This is now repeated in a sacramental way whenever the Eucharist is celebrated so that the effects of the one sacrifice of Christ could be effective in our lives today.
However, the real presence of our Lord in the Eucharist is just one of the teachings of our Lord that many find difficult to accept. His teaching on the indissolubility of marriage is difficult to accept as well, at least existentially. When the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning made them male and female. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But he said to them, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given.” (Mt 19:3-10)
St Paul in today’s second reading cited this same text to underscore marriage as a sacrament, a sign of Christ’s love for His Church, a love that is permanent, faithful until death and unconditional. “This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church.” This explains why the Church considers marriage as indissoluble as it is not just a human contract between two persons but God is the third person in this contract and Christ has raised it to be a sign of His love for us. St Paul made an exception only in the case of conversion to the faith, which we call, “Pauline privilege”, when we allow a natural marriage to be dissolved in favour of the faith.
However, the teaching of the Church on the permanency of marriage is at odds with the mentality of the world today. Nowadays, couples would seek for divorce citing “incompatibility”, which could mean many things. Because of divorce, families are divided and broken, children are left confused and hurt. Society is also making it difficult for us to continue to insist on the permanency of marriage. This is the reality today, especially in a world where both partners are living very busy lives in their career and social life. The latest census in 2020 shows that the number of divorces among Catholics, who profess to the indissolubility of marriage, are as many as that among those without religion! This is such an irony. Hence, today, many are clamouring for the Church to permit Catholics who are divorced and remarried to receive communion, otherwise we lose them completely as they feel unwanted or marginalized by the Church. Should the Church succumb in the name of compassion, or should we continue to impose the strict and unchangeable law of Christ?
Another hard teaching of our Lord in today’s gospel is total obedience and allegiance to Him. In today’s first reading, Joshua, after going through the history of God’s unconditional love for them, asked for a total commitment to God. (Jos 24:1-13) In a similar vein, the Lord spelt out the demands of discipleship. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” (Lk 14:25-27,32) In no uncertain terms, He said, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Lk 11:23) “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.” (Lk 12:8f) Finally, Jesus declares, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6)
Finally, how do we reconcile this hard teaching of Jesus as the Saviour of the world with the need to preach harmony and respect for other religions? Today, as a consequence of globalization and mass media, secularization and the emphasis on equality of all including religions, how can we still maintain that Christ is the Universal Saviour of the World without antagonizing people of other Faiths or those without Faith? How can we continue to say, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) That “there is one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all.” (1 Tim 2:5f) Indeed, there is this temptation for believers to syncretism, to compromise our faith, to accept all religions as equal manifestation of goodness, love and truth. So, we have believers, with or without religion, embracing the beliefs and even the rituals of other religions so that they appear to be open, inclusive and politically correct and acceptable to all. Of course, we can say we do all these actions without faith and conviction. But it leads to scandal and confusion among believers as to where we stand with regard to our faith in Christ. Does respect for other religions require us to compromise our beliefs in Christ?
These are hard teachings indeed. But clearly, today, we are called to make a radical choice for God. There is no question of compromise. In the light of what God had done for them, Joshua said to all the people: “If you will not serve the Lord, choose today whom you wish to serve, whether the gods that your ancestors served beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are now living. As for me and my House, we will serve the Lord.” Jesus is asking us the same question He asked His apostles, “What about you, do you want to go away too?” Simon Peter answered, “Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.” Indeed, unless we have the same faith of Peter in confessing Jesus as the Son of God, our faith in Him will be weak and we will compromise with the world. Eventually, we will also desert our Lord in favour of the acceptance of the world. In the final analysis, unless we have seen His mighty works in our lives and encounter His love, like the Israelites or the apostles, we cannot commit ourselves to Him totally. The psalmist invites us, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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