August 23, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Joshua 24: 1-2,15-17,18 + Psalm 34 + Ephesians 5: 21-32 + John 6: 60-69
It is easier to leave things alone than to make changes even when the way things are is not right, easy, or productive. That is a fact of human behavior. Addicts of every kind know that truth. They simply stay in their old ways because it’s too hard to do or be anything different.
It is easier to leave than to stay when a relationship gets demanding, the needs of someone else conflict with our own comfort and satisfaction, or it just gets harder to be faithful, keep a promise, or do the right the thing. This fact of human behavior accounts for a lot of divorce, fragmented churches, civic failure, and unfulfilled dreams.
In these closing verses of John’s sixth chapter, there is suddenly an awakening that Jesus is talking about more than bread, and that the intimacy to which he has invited his followers and the relationship he extends to them will do more than make them feel good and be satisfied. It is beginning to be clear that something is going to happen to those who eat this bread, that in becoming his flesh and blood, they will become the giver not the receiver. If he is bread, those who eat that bread will themselves be bread. If he is broken, they too will have to be broken. They will not simply be hearers of God’s word, but doers of God’s word. No wonder they began to murmur. It would be easier to leave things alone; or as John puts it, it is just easier to go back to their former way of life.
What troubles them is not eating flesh. It is the reality that eating that flesh will awaken within them life; but not a life for this world. In other words, the Spirit will take possession of them. They will become spiritual beings first and foremost, and the human/earthly part of them will be secondary and passing. They will live in this world but not be of this world. In the language of this Gospel, Jesus speaks of flesh over and against the spirit. He insists that the flesh, which here refers to the human way of being in the world, cannot give life. That is the difference between the old desert manna and the bread he will give. One nourishes the body which will die. The other nourishes the Spirit which will live.
Living by the spirit rather than living by the flesh is a difficult choice for people who do not believe in this one who has come down from heaven and will go back to heaven. It is difficult because he is suggesting that they have heavenly origins and a heavenly destiny, and therefore how they live in this world and how they relate to one another will be influenced, shaped and sustained by that knowledge and that faith.
A decision to believe in Jesus Christ determines our identity like the people of the Old Testament reading, and it determines whether or not we are spiritual or just a combination of water and various chemicals here today and gone tomorrow. Peter and his friends had by this time come to trust and believe. They saw the choice and understood that nothing in this world gives life, that nothing in this world could lead them to and fulfill the promise that was within them and for which they were created.
The choices we make in this life always reveal our deepest values and our inner motives from the company we keep to the cereal we eat. Now at the end of the sixth chapter, John puts before us the choice that Jesus offers: stay where you are and do nothing except prepare to die or enter into communion with Christ and prepare to live not in the future, but right now. Live as a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven, live as one who feeds the hungry, touches the sick, listens and forgives, bears a burden rather than a grudge, and lives by the Spirit rather than the flesh of this world.
Peter and his friends stayed but no longer in the world of the flesh. Others left to return to their former ways in this world unmoved, untouched, by the Spirit that gives life. John tells us why Peter and his friends stayed: because they had come to believe and know. Coming to believe and know is the very process of a spiritual life or the life of a true disciple. It is a process that begins with trusting enough and ends with understanding enough.
(5:30 pm)So, women of faith, awakening your life in the Spirit will lead you into a deeper and more profound life giving union with Christ and God. You have come here for this conference trusting enough and hopefully you leave here understanding enough: trusting the faith you treasure and the church in which you find hope; and better understanding what you have been called to become by God’s will and God’s plan. No choice is ever made once and for all. Someone asked me not long ago when I decided to be a priest. I said: “This morning when I got up.” I do it every day. It is no different for you. Your choice to live the sacramental covenant of marriage is made again and again. Your choice to live the life of a faithful Catholic is made over and over again, not just at your baptism. Your faith is confirmed by your every choice. Decide every day, not just today whom you will serve. In so doing you will always be Women of Faith.
(11:00 am)So, those of you who come here as candidates for Confirmation: awaken your life in the Spirit. It will lead you into deeper and a more profound and life giving union with Christ and God. You have come in formation trusting and hopefully when I present you to the Archbishop you will have understanding enough. Trusting the faith you treasure and the church in which you find hope. Understand what you have been called to become by God’s will and God’s plan. Ask every day what God wants you to become with your life. It is the only way to find fulfillment and lasting Joy.