21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug.

26, 2012 (Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17,18b; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69) Joshua summons all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem (about forty miles north of Jerusalem) to enter into a covenant. Properly this is probably meant as a renewal of the covenant the people entered into with the Lord under Moses. This comes at the end of the book of Joshua after Israel has subdued her enemies and the occupants of the land she had entered. In this theological interpretation of her history she owed her victories to the Lord who had subdued all these enemies. So it was appropriate that the tribes come together and enter into this binding covenant with the Lord in acknowledgement of this divine favor. Joshua actually offers them a choice of serving their ancestral gods from beyond the (Euphrates) River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land they are settled. But Joshua says I and my household will serve the Lord. Then all the people say: We will serve the Lord, for the Lord is our God. Thus all the tribes come to acknowledge that the Lord has done all these wonders for them in delivering them from all their enemies and as a result, no matter who has wavered in the past, now all the people agree to serve the Lord for he is our God. These covenant renewals seem to have cropped up frequently as kings and prophets tried to get the people to remain faithful to the Lord. The temptation to wander after other gods was strong and won the day at times but then religious reforms and reformers would come on the scene and the covenant with the Lord would be renewed. The Gospel is a crisis moment which stemmed from Jesus claiming that his flesh is real bread and his blood real drink. This is the hard saying that even his disciples struggled with: Who can accept it? When his disciples murmured, it recalls all Israel murmuring in the wilderness when they ultimately had to decide whether to follow the Lord or not. Now the disciples of Jesus must decide whether they will continue to follow Jesus or not. Many left him at this point. We have no idea what ever happened to them. We know not whether the resurrection changed them and they eventually came to believe or whether they were gone for good. All we can say for sure is that the Twelve remain and Simon speaks for them all when he says: Lord, (Greek kyrie) to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. It is curious that the translation reads Master at this point since Lord is a much richer and more powerful testimony to the identity of Jesus than Master would be.

There are probably many times when disciples in every age find themselves in a similar crisis, where the question of whether to stay or to go becomes tempting. The answer one finds hinges on whom we believe Jesus to be and how we relate to him. If we, like Simon Peter, regard Jesus as Lord and as the one who has the words of eternal life, then we are likely to remain with him. Peters words come through most forcefully when he asks To whom shall we go? That question is haunting and the one who asks it is likely to put everything else aside in order to cling to Jesus, much like Mary Magdalene does in her postresurrection encounter with the risen Jesus. To whom shall we go indeed!

Fr. Lawrence Hummer