Homily For the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, 25th August 2024

 

Readings: Jos.24:1-2.15-17.18; Ps. 34; Eph. 5:22-32; John 6:60-69

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

 

WHAT SHALL WE DO WHEN OUR FAITH AND LIFE SITUATIONS SEEM DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND?

 

Life is about making good choices, and every day of our lives, we make choices that we think are good for us. But sometimes some good choices are very difficult to make. However, the root of any choice we make in life comes from the fundamental option we have made as human person. Our fundamental option is the option we make for or against God, to love or to be selfish, to be good or evil, to be holy or sinful. This option has a way of influencing any other choices we make in life.

 

Today, in our Gospel passage, we heard how people reacted when faced with hard choices on account of the teachings of Jesus. For as he ends the discourse on the Bread of Life, he said to them: whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. So, hearing this hard teaching, many of his disciples decided to walk away. Then Jesus asked the twelve: will you also go away? Peter answered, 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.

 

Following these responses, we can see how important it is for us to make the fundamental option for God if we want to follow him. As we heard that most of the followers of Jesus left him behind after he spoke of himself as the Bread of Life. Thus, many of them refused to believe in such hard truth and teaching. This may be a result of their ignorance, impatience and inability to accommodate difficult moments and realities that are beyond them.

 

This same choice is what Joshua placed before the people of Israel in our first reading today when he 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.’

 

St. Paul, also in our second reading, presents the same choice for us when he commanded us to be subjected to one another in reference to Christ in choices that we have to make, especially husband and wife. He said 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. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their 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; that is the way Christ treats the Church because it is his body – and we are its living parts

 

Dear friends, every day we are called to make this fundamental option between God the Creator and the creatures who have made themselves gods. This is the reality of our faith in Christ, so the Christian faith we have is not something we should take for granted, as we may often find it difficult to remain faithful, especially when we are confronted with arguments and realities that are opposite and in contrast to our faith. Yet, at the same time, we are called to continue to be faithful and dedicate ourselves completely in obedience to the teachings of Christ. We are called today to develop a divine way of understanding the mysteries of God, but not rejecting them because we do not understand them.

 

Thus, when the articles of our faith or our life situations seem difficult, we are called to come to Jesus and remain faithful to him. We are called to believe in him who came from above and bears testimony of heavenly things. We are called like the apostles to say, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life. We are to bear witness to these things through the power of the Holy Spirit, knowing that our choice for God is a choice for love, and a life of love is a sacrificial life neither easy nor comfortable.

 

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, our hope is all in you when in difficult moments of decision-making regarding our faith in you; give us the grace and courage like St. Peter to bear authentic witness to the faith we have found in Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. Happy Sunday and remain blessed.