A Time of Commitment:
The Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024
August 25, 2024
Joshua 24:1-18; Psalm 34; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69
The reading from Joshua and from the Fourth Gospel give us the same message: we have free choice to be a disciple. Joshua gathers the Twelve Tribes at Shechem to remind them they have free will. Shechem was chosen as a place for this commitment for several reasons. First, it is located just south of Mount Gerazim and is located between Galilee and Jerusalem. It is a fortified city just south of the Samaritans with whom the Israelites shared common ancestry and rivalries. It was the place where Abraham stopped and received the promises of the land by God. His great grandson, Joseph’s, bones were buried there upon return from slavery in Egypt. Before the entered Canaan by the sword and force, Joshua called the tribes together to pronounce the blessings and curses of the law. Once they had chosen to follow the Lord, the Hebrews could begin their conquest of Canaan and occupy the Promised Land. Shechem, now called Nablus, is known as the land of commitment.
The Bread of Life discourse was set in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, not far from where Peter gave his commitment, which was needed for Jesus to build his church upon him. This was the time in the friendship where one’s commitment would be put to the test. Last week, we heard him give the hard saying, “I am the Bread of Heaven; you must eat my flesh and drink by blood,” and today, we hear the disciples saying, “This is a hard saying to accept.” At that point, many people left his way of life and returned to their own lifestyles. I often wondered what happened to those who could not yet accept his teaching. The fact is real: many left.
Jesus gives his disciples the freedom to leave as well. They stay. Some reluctantly. They do not understand what Jesus is saying to them, but they know from their experience all that has led to this point. They can’t leave. The world lacks meaning without him. Peter's acclamation concludes a journey of learning and faith. He will stay.
We, though, have our own decisions to make, and they are not easy ones. Jesus, in different ways, asks us the same question: Are you going to stay in relationship with me? Now, it might seem like an easy answer and we would say “yes, I am baptized, confirmed, and I attend church regularly,” but the question is more sophisticated than that. It asks will you continue to grow and evolve as I do in the complex reality of the world? Will you stay faithful to my commandments to love God wholly and to love your neighbor as much as you do yourself?
The question today becomes whether we love ideology more than Jesus. Do I see myself as a Christian rather than a member of a political ideology? The question is about whether I demand judgments and justice rather than mercy. The question becomes about expanding my consciousness so that I adopt radical hospitality, patience, and has a disposition of positive regard. We have lots of ways in which the way of Jesus is presented to us. Sometimes, it is a hard saying and we cannot adopt his thinking. Sometimes, it is a hard saying and we decide we have to carry on and keep calm.
At the root of it is (1.) our free will and ability to choose and (2.) our desire to stay in relationship with Jesus, the person, not the ideology. To do so means that it gets harder to act as a disciple. The stakes are greater, and the sacrifice is larger. We find that we stand empty before Jesus to say: I’m willing to go with you. You have shown us so much this far. We can only go forward. We are empty and humbled, and that shows that we are on the way of being his friend.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (2 Thessalonians 1) We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater.
Tuesday: (2 Thessalonians 2) We ask you, brothers and sisters, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him, not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way.
Wednesday: (2 Thessalonians 3) We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us. For you know how one must imitate us.
Thursday: (1 Corinthians 1) I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Friday (1 Corinthians 1) Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.
Saturday (1 Corinthians 1) Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,
and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.
Gospel:
Monday: (Matthew 23) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
Tuesday: (Matthew 23) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
Wednesday (Matthew 23) You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.
Thursday (Mark 6) Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
Friday (Matthew 25) The Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.
Saturday (Matthew 25) A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one– to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five.
Saints of the Week
August 25: Louis of France (1214-1270) became king at age 12, but did not take over leadership until ten years later. He had eleven children with his wife, Marguerite, and his kingship reigned for 44 years. His rule ushered in a longstanding peace and prosperity for the nation. He is held up as a paragon of medieval Christian kings.
August 25: Joseph Calasanz, priest (1556-1648), was a Spaniard who studied canon law and theology. He resigned his post as diocesan vicar-general to go to Rome to live as a pilgrim and serve the sick and the dying. He used his inheritance to set up free schools for poor families with children. He founded an order to administer the schools, but dissension and power struggles led to its dissolution.
August 27: Monica (332-387) was born a Christian in North Africa and was married to a non-Christian, Patricius, with whom she had three children, the most famous being Augustine. Her husband became a Christian at her urging and she prayed for Augustine's conversion as well from his newly adopted Manichaeism. Monica met Augustine in Milan where he was baptized by Bishop Ambrose. She died on the return trip as her work was complete.
August 28: Augustine, bishop and doctor (354-430), was the author of his Confessions, his spiritual autobiography, and The City of God, which described the life of faith in relation to the life of the temporal world. Many other writings, sermons, and treatises earned him the title Doctor of the church. In his formative years, he followed Mani, a Persian prophet who tried to explain the problem of evil in the world. His mother’s prayers and Ambrose’s preaching helped him convert to Christianity. Baptized in 387, Monica died a year later. He was ordained and five years later named bishop of Hippo and defended the church against three major heresies: Manichaeism, Donatism, and Pelagianism.
August 29: The Martyrdom of John the Baptist recalls the sad events of John's beheading by Herod the tetrarch when John called him out for his incestuous and adulterous marriage to Herodias, who was his niece and brother's wife. At a birthday party, Herodias' daughter Salome danced well earning the favor of Herod who told her he would give her almost anything she wanted.
This Week in Jesuit History
- August 25, 1666: At Beijing, the death of Fr. John Adam Schall. By his profound knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, he attained such fame that the Emperor entrusted to him the reform of the Chinese calendar.
- August 26, 1562: The return of Fr. Diego Laynez from France to Trent, the Fathers of the Council desiring to hear him speak on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
- August 27, 1679: The martyrdom at Usk, England, of St. David Lewis, apostle to the poor in his native Wales for three decades before he was caught and hanged.
- August 28, 1628: The martyrdom in Lancashire, England, of St. Edmund Arrowsmith.
- August 29, 1541: At Rome the death of Fr. John Codure, a Savoyard, one of the first 10 companions of St. Ignatius.
- August 30, 1556: On the banks of the St. Lawrence River, the Iroquois mortally wounded Fr. Leonard Garreau, a young missionary.
- August 31, 1581: In St. John's Chapel within the Tower of London, a religious discussion took place between St. Edmund Campion, suffering from recent torture, and some Protestant ministers.
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