To Whom Shall We Go? | August 23, 2015

 August 23, 2015

Friendship is one of God’s most precious gifts because we get to choose the people with whom we share our hearts. I don’t know about your best friends but my best friends and I have our own language, our own sign language, secret handshakes, inside jokes, and we can finish each other’s sentences. The older we get, the deeper our bond becomes. Best friends hold each other through trials, they travel the world together, they nurse each other through break ups and ugly times, and when scandal comes to any, they stand by one another. Acquaintances don’t have quite the same investment do they?

Today’s gospel has a sweet undertone about friendship. Jesus just finished delivering the biggest bombshell ever by saying basically, “eat me.” The language he uses is quite scandalous and graphic even. The word he uses for “flesh” means “meat that is torn from the bone of an animal” and the word he uses for “feed” on me literally means to “chew.” Imagine how outrageous this sounded to a crowd of mixed company? “Hey friends, so I want you to chew on my flesh ripped from my bones.” Yikes!!! I can picture the apostles smacking their foreheads with a defeated, “Oi Vey!” at this proclamation. No wonder many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching.” Ya think?

Jesus was aware that he had just blown their minds but he said, “Does this offend you?” He’s testing them, like grad school or PhD level testing. Have you been paying attention people? If not, this will send you away and sure enough plenty left that day. While those that left were disciples of Jesus, they were not necessarily his close friends and Jesus knew that this level of commitment to the faith would be too much for some. He even calls out Judas in general, as one of you will betray me. I wonder if this statement sent a shock wave down his spine or if he even paid attention to it?

Jesus goes on to define actual grace by saying, “For this reason, I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.” We can do nothing apart from God and the graces received in Sacrament are essential to life with Christ. Many, not some, but many left that day and returned to their former way of life. How many times have we experienced transformation say on a retreat, at a conference, or at mass and we live in grace for a time but resort back to our old way of life eventually? We need to renew our commitment on a weekly and daily basis or we too will be among those that walked away.

Jesus looks at his 12 apostles, his closest friends, and says, “Do you also want to leave?” Peter takes the lead, “Master, to whom shall we go?” In other words, there is no one like you. We are undivided. We are pure in heart. “You have the words of eternal life.” I’m sure the rest of them also chimed in with similar salutations, “We love you, man.” The last line of this gospel is where that sweet undertone of friendship is found, “We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” Belief requires knowledge and conviction requires proof and these 12 men had both because of their intimacy with Jesus. They knew him as well as we know our best friends. They knew his heart, his favorite food, his laugh, his mom, his quirks, etc. They prayed together and had heart to hearts, they ate together, sang together, and drank together. It was real friendship and as a result of this level of intimacy they were convinced that he was the Messiah. What a beautiful testament that even Jesus valued the gift of friendship. He knew that he needed to build strong, intimate relationships based on mutual values, prayer, quality time, laughter, story telling, etc., in order for him to be truly known by them and then they would take that knowledge out into the world. Our friends are our biggest fans. So, I suggest that we all become best friends forever with Jesus and hopefully because of that kind of intimacy we too will be able to say, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”

Reading 1 JOS 24:1-2A, 15-17, 18B

Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem,
summoning their elders, their leaders,
their judges, and their officers. 
When they stood in ranks before God,
Joshua addressed all the people:
“If it does not please you to serve the LORD,
decide today whom you will serve,
the gods your fathers served beyond the River
or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. 
As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

But the people answered,
“Far be it from us to forsake the LORD
for the service of other gods. 
For it was the LORD, our God,
who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt,
out of a state of slavery. 
He performed those great miracles before our very eyes
and protected us along our entire journey
and among the peoples through whom we passed. 
Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

Responsorial Psalm PS 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21

R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Many are the troubles of the just one,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him;
he watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Reading 2 EPH 5:21-32

Brothers and sisters:
Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. 
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife
just as Christ is head of the church,
he himself the savior of the body. 
As the church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ loved the church
and handed himself over for her to sanctify her,
cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
that he might present to himself the church in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish. 
So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. 
He who loves his wife loves himself. 
For no one hates his own flesh
but rather nourishes and cherishes it, 
even as Christ does the church,
because we are members of his body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.

Gospel 

JN 6:60-69

Many of Jesus’disciples who were listening said,
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending
to where he was before? 
It is the spirit that gives life,
while the flesh is of no avail.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.”
Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him. 
And he said,
“For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father.”

As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer accompanied him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” 
Simon Peter answered him, “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.”