People sometimes say, "Decisions, decisions! Too many decisions!" I'll bet that this happens most often in Starbucks by someone who is there for the first time. Cappaccino or Frappuccino? If the latter, which of the 28 varieties? Then there are Lattes - a lotta, lotta Lattes. And Expressos: six of them, and that's just the type, not the flavors. Hot chocolates, plural of course. Can you get just coffee? Well, yes, and I'll also bet that's the choice most people who don't understand anything on the menu and don't want to look stupid by asking questions and holding up the line. Fortunately, our readings from the book of Joshua and John's Gospel don't give us multiple, mind blowing choices. They give us a simple either/or.
Christians do, of course, face many choices. Underneath them all, however, is the radical, fundamental choice: Do I accept and follow Jesus, (in Peter's words) the Holy One of God, or not?
In our first reading from Joshua, he lays out pretty clear worship possibilities. Do they choose the gods their ancestors worshiped across the river; the Amorite gods of the territory they were now in, or the one, true God - the Lord? Wisely, they responded, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD for the service of other gods." (Joshua 24:16)
In the gospel we read the final part of the bread of life discourse in John, chapter 6. Many of Jesus' disciples had a hard time accepting the fact that Jesus expected them to eat His body and drink His blood. They couldn't understand that Jesus WAS the bread of life - quite literally. But that was not the only teaching of Jesus that caused eyeballs to roll and hands to fly in the air. I'm sure Jesus' teaching on "Love your enemies" got many responses similar to, "You've got to be kidding? Me love those people that I hate the most?" As a result, many walked away from Jesus.
I've heard many people say that if they were only there, they would not leave Jesus. They would accept and embrace his teachings! History proves otherwise. Many people today leave the Church - not only the Catholic Church, but many other denominations as well. Many leave what we call "organized religion" altogether. Judgmental urging or nagging stands almost no chance of bringing them back. What does? Seeing the comfort, strength, and joy we experience in our faith!
Our faith in Jesus, our decision to follow Jesus' teachings, and our committal to His way of life must be primary in our lives. We must commit ourselves, first and foremost, and radically, to Jesus, not to a stack of statements or even a collection of ideas, good as those may be. At the very heart and soul of this commitment is the person of Jesus, through whom we return to the Father, in the life of the Holy Spirit.
Every time we receive Jesus in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, let us re-commit ourselves to him and pledge our loyalty! “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
YES, the "bottom line" is our choosing to follow JESUS & then living out that commitment in our everyday lives. Like the saying attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, "Preach the Gospel always--when necessary, use words."
ReplyDeleteThis weekend as I listened to St. Peter's declaration it reminded me that the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke) include the account of JESUS asking the disciples, "Who do YOU say that I am?" and Peter's response, "YOU ARE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD.". St. John's Gospel does not include this account--John's Gospel was written later and so he relates events not included in the Synoptic Gospels--but this declaration of Peter in John's Gospel, "LORD, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF EVERLASTING LIFE" and his acknowledgement of WHO JESUS IS is somewhat similar. In both cases St. Peter speaks up for the others as leader and as the man JESUS chose to the leader of the Church and acknowledges the Truth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, of Who JESUS is and declares allegiance.