Upon entering the Promised Land, Joshua challenged the people of Israel to declare whether they would serve the true God or false gods. They emphatically stated that they would serve the Lord: "Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to go and serve other gods!". In fact, in the centuries that followed, Israel was then often unfaithful to God and fell into the worship of various pagan deities.
This episode is linked today to the rejection by the Jews of Christ's teachings on the Eucharist, as if it were the last example of the people's unfaithfulness to God. "Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, 'This manner of speaking is harsh; who can listen to him?'" We learn that they were "grumbling" at Jesus' words. Just as Israel should have been faithful to God after experiencing so many of his saving works, these disciples of Jesus should have believed him after seeing so many of his miracles and obvious signs of his holiness and truthfulness.
But again-another lesson for us-Jesus does not retreat or dilute his teaching in the face of their rejection. On the contrary, he links the truth of the Eucharist to another truth, also difficult to believe: the ultimate glorification of his humanity. "He said to them, 'Does this scandalize you, what if you should see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?'" In other words, by the same power by which Our Lord can make Himself present under the form of bread, He will also glorify His humanity to sit at the right hand of the Father. The power that hides his glory in the host will one day fully reveal it for all mankind to see.
Jesus then teaches the need for a spiritual perspective in order to receive his truth, that is, openness to the action of the Holy Spirit and faith in a way of life beyond the merely material. A bodily, carnal existence will never open us to the revelation of God. God becomes flesh and then bread, but it must be received in the spirit.
This was too much for many. They wanted the material bread of Jesus, but not the spiritual bread of the Eucharist. They stopped following him. But Pedrospeaking in the name of the Twelve, affirmed his fidelity to Christ with these beautiful words: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God". In the face of so much rejection of Christ and of his presence in the Eucharist, let us affirm more and more our faith in him.
Homily on the readings of the XXI Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Priest Luis Herrera Campo offers his nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.
