Sunday 21st
per annum (B)
Holy Mother church has, over the last four weeks, brought us a crucial
chapter in the gospel, that of John chapter 6. It has been an extended
meditation on the Eucharist. Today the chapter comes to its conclusion with
what on the face of it might seem a disaster (the falling away of many
disciples) but is, I suggest to you, actually a victory, encapsulated in the
words of St Peter.
So first I suggest we should reflect on the gospel today as a testament
to the priority of truth over success. The world in which we live does not see
it that way. And sadly the politics we know too well prefer success before
truth. For many people in our society, it is much more important to be
successful (whether it be in politics, in one’s career, in business). Sadly
there are those in the church who can be tempted by this worldly priority –
preferring to change Church teaching and appear ‘relevant’ to people, than to
witness to the truth and appear a ‘failure’. But here in John chapter 6 our
Lord does not bend. Here is the priority of truth. It is divine truth, and of
course, it cannot be changed, even when people find it hard and threaten to
leave the Church. Our Lord is single-minded and determined, and he expects the
same of us.
Back in the time of Joshua the people of God were asked to make a
decision. In a very striking way Joshua challenges God’s people to make a
choice between serving the LORD alone, or alternatively to serve the alien gods
of the surrounding nations. The point here is that they cannot have it both
ways. If they are to serve the LORD there is no room for any other god – they
must choose. There cannot be a little bit of one religion and a little bit of
another (the technical word for this is syncretism). It makes no sense for the
people to just pick out the bits of different religions that they liked and
make up their own hotchpotch religion!
However it was not just in those distant times that this approach to
religion was a temptation. Today many people are inclined to pick and choose
over their religion. “I like this bit; but I don’t like that!” But what this
syncretism does is make US into the “decider” – the one who knows what is true!
But that is a very different thing to a religion which is about divine revealed
truth. We human beings do not get to decide what religious truth is – first and
foremost it is revealed to us by God! So there can be no syncretism, because
any syncretism effectively deposes God and replaces God with ourselves. With a syncretistic
approach we effectively say “I know better than God!”
And people don’t realise that they are doing something very similar over
Catholic teaching. A Catholic does not pick and choose over what they like
about the Catholic Faith, as if they were choosing items on a menu! No, God has
revealed the truth in God the Son, and through God the Holy Spirit reveals it
to us in the Church. When the Church teaches authoritatively it is transmitting
divine revelation – it is not sharing human opinions! It is divine revelation.
Now, as Joshua knew, divine revelation is not always comfortable! The
divinely revealed truth contains some elements that we will like and others
that we will not like. Some things that God reveals to us might greatly disturb
us! It was true for Israel, and it is true for us Catholic Christians. We may
not like some aspect of Catholic teaching. We may find some Catholic teaching
very difficult. We may find some Catholic teaching very difficult to
understand. But what is crucially important is that we do not walk away when we
don’t like it, or don’t understand it, or find it too disturbing. If we say “I
don’t accept Church teaching on this” then we are walking away from Christ, like
those many disciples in John 6 walked away. They could not accept this teaching
of Christ that ‘unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood
you have no life in you…as the Father sent me, and I live because of the
Father, so he who eats me will live because of me…he who eats this bread will
live for ever.” Our Lord revealed the truth that they needed for eternal life,
but because it was too hard for them, they walked away.
Of course we are not saying that they had thus lost all chance of eternal
life. But somehow they would need to repent of this ‘walking away’ and
return to the truth that leads to eternal life.
So, my brothers and sisters, we too are being asked to make a decision.
The gospel challenges us now, like Joshua challenged Israel. “Whom shall we
serve?” Will we serve God who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, who is God
the Son, and through God the Holy Spirit reveals Him in the Church? The Church
which is Christus Totus, the whole
Christ, will never lead us into error. That is why the Pope has the charism of
infallibility when he is defining formally the doctrine of the Church. Will
then we serve God and accept the truth He has revealed to us, or, will we go
our own way, and decide for ourselves and make up our own religion?
Christ promises us an eternal home, and He offers us the means and way
of reaching our eternal home. Can we do the same for ourselves? Of course not!
If we go our own way, we are on our own until we repent. Can we save ourselves?
If we could, the world would not need a saviour.
Christ does not promise that life will be easy as His disciple. He does
not promise that we will like everything He will teach us. He does not promise
we will understand everything He reveals to us. But what He promises is eternal
life!
Let us then make St Peter’s words our own this day:
“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.”
Only God can save us. Our likes or dislikes, our thoughts and opinions,
our feelings or limited intelligence – none of that can save us. Only the Holy
God can bring us to eternal life.
IH - given at Sclerder Abbey and Buckfast Abbey
