TWENTYFIRST SUNDAY OF YEAR “b”
Introduction:
Ephesians 5, 21 – 32.
In the 2nd. Reading of today, St. Paul
presents the code governing relationships between husband and wife, parents and
children, masters and slaves. This code reflects the cultural assumptions of
the day, i.e. the subordination of the weaker party to the dominant party: wife
to husband, children to parents, slaves to masters. Yet St. Paul brings out the
Gospel obligations of the dominant party towards the weaker party. Thus,
husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the Church, fathers should not
provoke their children but train them in the Lord’s instruction, and masters
must remember that they have a Master in heaven. “Be subordinate to one another
out of reverence for Christ” (5, 21), i.e., let there be mutual acceptance,
mutual deference rather than dominance, in the self-sacrificing spirit of
Christ for the Church. Our moral life has an ecclesial dimension. Our moral
life must demonstrate what we are: the Body of Christ, the Church.
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
(Cycle
“B”: John 6, 60 – 69)
The
Homily During the Second World War certain Nazis
killed some Jews in a Polish village and buried the bodies in a mass grave. One
12-year-old Jewish boy was still alive. He dug his way out of the shallow mud
and ran from house to house, seeking shelter. The people, mostly Catholic, knew
what had happened and, when they saw the boy, caked with dirt, they promptly
shut the door on his face. One woman was about to do the same when the boy pleaded,
“Lady, don’t you recognise me? I’m the Jesus you Christian say you love!” The
woman broke into tears and sheltered the boy in her house. I guess she made her
decision for Jesus. She accepted God in the form of a terrified refugee boy.
More recently two
boys went out for a swim in the lake. Not returning home, a search party found
their bodies at the bottom of the lake, their arms knotted round each other in
desperation. The bereaved families registered quite different reactions. One
family was totally shattered, gave up Sunday Mass and family prayer for what
they said, “God has done to us.” For the other family the tragedy became a
chance to draw closer to God, In the midst of their suffering they were able to
perceive that God was telling them something. They decided to opt for God; they
understood that God wouldn’t allow anything except for their good. They
accepted God in the death of their son. Don’t we encounter God in the death of
his own Son Jesus? Should we get angry when smaller irritations happen to us?
Are you easily offended?
Does it take a lot or a little to raise your hackles? What makes your blood boil?
We can refuse to do many a good deed because we are angry. An angry person is a
faultfinder. Listen to Rabbi Smelke of
Nicholsburg: “When a poor man asks you for aid, do not use his faults as an
excuse for not helping him. For then God will look for your offences, and he is
sure to find many of them. Keep in mind that the poor man’s transgressions have
been atoned for by his poverty while your transgressions still remain with
you.”
You just heard how
in today’s Gospel Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist gave offence, raised hackles
and made some people’s blood boil. The teaching blew their minds. They were
shocked. “This guy has gone too far,” they said. The very thought of consuming
the flesh and blood of Jesus is difficult for many people today. It would have
been utterly abhorrent to a 1st. century Jew, with their strict laws
on food. So they were mentally conditioned against accepting his word and
invitation. The author, Dick Sutphen, wrote, “Our minds are like parachutes –
they only function when they are open.” While you should not turn away from
values and ideas you have good reason to believe are true, it is important to
continue learning and growing mentally. A narrow mind is the straightest avenue
to a narrow life. Listen to others more informed than you are and don’t be
afraid to ask questions. The immediate disciples of Jesus kept their minds
open, as if to say, “Speak on, Lord, give us more.” Which is precisely what
Jesus wanted to do. He did not waver or plead with those who broke ranks and
left. He reminded them that their belief in him was only possible through the
action of the Spirit. Thus, when Peter declared, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life”, it was the Father who enabled him to do so.
However, we also
know that from this high point of faith, Peter would go on to deny Jesus and
then later repent. Not only would he be forgiven, but he would receive a unique
mandate to give the Eucharist to the Church. This is surely reassuring to the
rest of us as we journey on with the Lord, sometimes stumbling, sometimes full
of faith, often in need of forgiveness.
PRAYER: (Carlo
Carretto, 1910 – 1988):
Come down, O Bread
of Heaven
Take our flesh and
blood and make them yours.
Take our eyes and
give us your vision,
Take our minds and
give us your thought;
Take our feet and
set them in your path
Take our hands and
fold them in your prayer
Take our hearts and
give them your will to love.
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