Twenty-first Sunday In Ordinary Time
The first reading is from the Book of Joshua. Joshua was the lieutenant and successor of Moses. The Exodus from Egypt under Moses’ leadership can be approximately dated in the early 13th century B.C. The entry into Canaan under the leadership of Joshua may be dated about mid 13th century, about 1250 B.C. Many of the stories narrating the deeds of Joshua repeat in altered form the stories of the deeds of Moses. A few examples: under the leadership of Moses the Israelites pass through the Sea of Reeds on dry ground. Under the leadership of Joshua, they pass through the Jordan on dry ground. Before the Exodus from Egypt, Moses and the Israelites celebrated the Passover. After their entry into Canaan, Joshua and the Israelites celebrated Passover. At the initial appearance and commissioning of Moses, the Lord commands Moses to remove his sandals, “for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” At Jericho, an angel appeared to Joshua, and said to him, “Put off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” The purpose of the stories: to legitimize Joshua as successor to Moses.
Our first reading comes from the last chapter of Joshua. The land of Canaan has been conquered.
The land has been apportioned to the tribes and clans. Joshua is getting old. As our reading begins, he summons all Israel to meet with him at Shechem, a religious shrine of the Israelites. He addresses the people. Strangely to us Christians, he gives his people a choice to serve either the Lord or other gods. Then a famous statement, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” The people decide. Since it was the Lord who brought their ancestors out of Egypt and performed all those wondrous signs (miracles) in their behalf, “Therefore we will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” Why was this reading paired with this Sunday’s gospel? In the gospel, many of Jesus’ disciples are drifting away because of the difficult revelations in the Bread of Life Discourse. He turns to the Twelve. He gives them a choice just like Joshua did for his people. “Do you also want to leave?” Like the ancient Israelites, the disciples decide to stay with the Lord (Jesus). “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
The Responsorial Psalm (34) is the same as on the two previous Sundays, but with some different verses. It is a song of thanksgiving. A Responsorial Psalm is usually selected because it expands on a theme found in the first reading and in the gospel of the day. Food was a theme in those readings of the two previous Sundays. Psalm 34 was selected, it seems, chiefly for verse 8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” which in the people’s response becomes “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” Taste connects with the theme of food. The people’s response for this Sunday remains the same, although neither first reading nor the gospel has food as a theme. The gospel reading, however, is still part of the Bread of Life Discourse.
The second reading is the last in a series of seven second readings from the Letter to the Ephesians. The author portrays the love of Christ for the Church as a model for the love that should exist between husband and wife. Christ sacrificed himself for the Church to sanctify her “by the bath of water with the word, without spot or wrinkle…, holy and without blemish.” This is why, says the author, husbands must love their wives as they love their own body, and “He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one hates his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it.” A stunning picture of what an ideal Christian marriage could be! But many are the problems that can become obstacles to this ideal. No wonder the author adds, “This is a great mystery….”
The gospel of this Sunday is the final one in a series of selections from the Bread of Life Discourse found only in the Gospel of John. The material presented as catechesis for a Christian Community in the last decade of the first century of Christianity must have stirred considerable opposition in that community. For explanations of that material, see this column in The Message of the past four weeks. Today’s gospel reading a reaction to the catechesis. The negative reaction does not come from outside the Christian Community but from within, from “disciples.”
John describes their objection, “This is a hard saying. Who can accept it? Jesus’ response is also a “hard saying.” It implies that those who do not have the Spirit of God within themselves cannot understand what has been taught in the preceding discourse. A simpler way of expressing this “hard saying” would be the words of Jesus in John 6:43, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Meaning: faith is required to accept that Jesus is the true bread from heaven - as the one who brings that revelation; as the one who is that revelation; as his real flesh and blood which sustains Christian life and guarantees resurrection to eternal life.
Most Christians accept the first two ways in which John proclaims Jesus as the bread of life that comes down from heaven. It is the third revelation that causes division of Christian from Christian from the end of the first century to this day. According to John, many of Jesus’ disciples walked away from him. This included members of John’s Christian Community at the end of the first century. When Jesus asks the Twelve if they will also leave him, Simon Peter’s response is our response, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God. Those words of eternal life include these words John attributes to Jesus, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood (already) has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
