First reading: Jos. 24:1–2a,15–18b

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.”

Second reading: 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.”

In other words

by Magdaleno Fabiosa, SVD (St. Arnold Janssen Home, Tagbilaran City, Bohol)

In today’s Gospel incident, after explaining what the bread of life meant, many of Jesus’ followers expressed complete confusion. They found what he said about the bread of life intolerable. Many chose to leave his company. Then, like Joshua, Jesus turned to the Twelve and gave them the choice to stay with him or join the rank of unbelievers. Without explaining himself, he said to his disciples: “Do you also want to leave?”

There are two points in today’s Gospel that need to be highlighted. First, Jesus respects human freedom as an absolute value. He allows people the freedom of choice. He could have explained himself to his closest followers so that they would remain. But he did not. He asked them: “Are you also leaving?” In the midst of all the confusion and the seeming intolerability of his teachings, some continued to believe in Jesus’ teachings and these few became the pillars, the foundation of what is called the Apostolic Faith, our Christian faith. 

Second, the predicament that the followers of Jesus faced is something that gets repeated in every age. Confusion and the waning of our faith is an inevitable phenomenon when we live in a world that does not share our convictions regarding life and morality consequent to our Christian faith.

Is it not confusing and discouraging when we see that people who cheat, who bribe, who peddle drugs, who do not care about any morality at all, are the ones who seemingly are successful, happy, and enjoying life? Is it not confusing when we see that those who do not care about Christian sexual morality are the ones who seemingly are getting the most out of life? I would like to underline the word seemingly. They seemingly are happy and enjoying the most out of life. But the question is, are they really happy?

In this connection, I remember reading a book entitled Something Beautiful for God, written by Malcolm Muggeridge, an avowed agnostic. He was a famous personality in England. He worked at the BBC which assigned him to do a documentary on Mother Theresa of India. During the time he did this documentary, he became very close to Mother Theresa. One afternoon during tea time, Mother Theresa, out of the blue, asked the author, “Malcolm, are you happy?” The author was taken aback. He could not answer her immediately.

That evening he went to the office of Mother Theresa and had a private talk with her. There in that conversation, he opened up and told her that he had everything that everybody was running after. “I am successful both financially and professionally. But I am not happy. I hope this answers the question you asked this afternoon.” 

Then Mother Theresa said, “Have you ever thought of joining the Church?” With a nervous laughter, Muggeridge answered, “I am too far away from God, if ever there is one.” Then Mother Theresa retorted with this prophetic statement, “Yes Malcolm, that is what God does, he gives you the freedom to be so far away from him so that when he discovers you, you will cling so tightly to him not wanting to let him go.” 

Two years after that stint in India, Malcolm Muggeridge surprised the English world by having himself baptized in the Catholic Church. He wrote a book entitled Jesus Rediscovered where he declared his commitment to Jesus. 

There is a very interesting statement in this book that I still remember. Muggeridge said, “In the midst of the confusion and the contractions in Indian society, what the life of that fragile woman did was speak to me of a God whom I, for so long, took for granted. Discovering him brought serenity and peace to my life, the kind of peace that the world can never give.”