Homily, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Some of the teachings of the Lord are difficult.  They challenge us, perhaps even frustrate us as they try to prick our souls out of complacency, to wake them up to the Truth, to snap us out of the numbing malaise of this work-a-day world.

Psalm 19: “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul / the statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple / the precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart”

Sometimes medicine is hard to swallow, we fear taking that big pill or getting that shot, or trusting that the doctor will fix a broken arm by twisting and pulling.  But it’s truth.  It works.

Brothers and Sisters, the Lord’s commands are medicine for the soul, for the heart.  He made us, we belong to him.  We are his people, the sheep of his flock.  His word is a lamp for our feet and light to our path.  He is our moral compass.  Not Republicans, not Democrats, not movie stars, not teen idols, not technology, and certainly not ourselves.

It is God’s prerogative to show us the good life.  He’s got the blue prints to our nature.  He made us not haphazardly, but for a purpose, with a design in mind.  And sometimes we have to swallow a slice of humble pie to say, “Lord, you’re right.  I trust in you.”

This was the task put to Joshua and his people in our first reading.  He gathered all the people of Israel, and said, “You are free to follow what ever god or gods you choose, but know this: for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” 

That is to say, Faith cannot be forced on you.  I will not make you believe anything, but know that in no uncertain terms, if you want to be member of this household, we’re placing our faith, hope, and love in the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So, what do you say?!  And they resoundingly responded “We will follow the Lord!”  And thank God for that!  Where would we be today if all of Israel had decided, “Nah, Josh, you go ahead, we’re gonna stay here with these other gods that let us do whatever we want.”  We wouldn’t be here today.  It was that big of a deal.

[Great principle to abide by: never trust a coach, a politician, or any kind of leader who promises you can get whatever you want any way you want it.  Every time, they’ll prove to be a phony.]

Fast forward to 2^nd reading, in which St. Paul sets up an analogy between the man-woman relationship and the Christ-Church relationship– many priests won’t even touch this passage with a 10-foot pole, for fear that new-feminists will burn down the rectory.  “Subordination!!!!!!”  High heresy!  This proves the Church has always been chauvinistic!  A Repressive Regime!!  Nonsense.

First it’s not fair to judge the early Church by today’s standards.  Second, and more importantly, St. Paul is not telling women to “crawl into a hole and do as your told”.  Let’s let the passage speak for itself.

Notice how it begins: “Be subordinate to each other out of reverence for Christ.”

Mutual submission, mutual subordination.  Yes, wives are subordinate to their husbands, but that’s only because husbands subordinate themselves to their wives.  It won’t work any other way.

Check out what Pope Pius XI wrote about this passage way back in 1930:

“This subjection, however, does not deny or take away the liberty which fully belongs to the woman both in view of her dignity as a human person, and in view of her most noble office as wife and mother and companion; nor does it bid her obey her husband's every request if not in harmony with right reason or with the dignity due to wife; nor…does it imply that the wife should be put on a level with those persons who in law are called minors, to whom it is not customary to allow free exercise of their rights on account of their lack of mature judgment, or of their ignorance of human affairs.

         Summary: Does not mean: get in the kitchen, make me a sandwich then get back in here and make me a baby.  Does not even mean “Do as your told”.  Does not mean you’re so inferior you wouldn’t understand.

Pius XI Continues:

“But it forbids that exaggerated liberty which cares not for the good of the family; it forbids that in this body which is the family, the heart be separated from the head to the great detriment of the whole body and the proximate danger of ruin. For if the man is the head, the woman is the heart, and as he occupies the chief place in ruling, so she may and ought to claim for herself the chief place in love.”

         Summary: It DOES mean that wife can destroy the family because “I’m free, whatever, I’ll do what I want”.  It DOES mean that, as the Church is to Christ, wife is to be the soul of the family.  If husband is the figurative leader, wife is to be the very heart.

Does experience not ring true here?  Who carries a child for 9 months in her own body, knowing and loving that child before she has even ever laid eyes on it?  Who goes through the agonizing pain of childbirth yet would endure it time and time again to have that moment of holding her baby for the first time?  Who feeds a child from her very body for months and months, literally pouring herself out to nourish her baby.  It’s the wife, the mother.  Mom’s, claim with pride and joy, your place as the chief of love.

St. Paul then tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the Church.  [Point to CROSS].  That’s what your love for your wife must look like.

Be subordinate to each other out of reverence for Christ.

Continuing John 6 – Bread of Life

Last Part of the Story, dramatic conclusion

The Eucharist was itself a hard teaching.

At first they thought “I am the bread of life” was a nice metaphor, or a wonderful spiritual image.  “Yes, Lord, you nourish us with your word, you are food for the soul” – in a very ethereal sense.  If Jesus stayed here in his presentation, one could reasonably assert this Eucharistic Theology is merely symbolic language.

But then Jesus makes it unmistakably clear – this teaching is no metaphor, no symbol.  “Eat my flesh and drink my blood, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”  There’s no way around it.  The Greek word for “Eat” that the Lord chooses is better translated as “gnaw,” like a dog on a bone.  Very. Real.

Proved too hard.  Many leave and “go back to former way of life.”  Notice that the Lord does not stop them.  Had his teaching been a mere symbol or parable or metaphor, he would have called them out on their lack of understanding as he had on many other occasions of confusion.  But away they go.  He had spoken truth, and they couldn’t handle it.

Had they waited to see how Jesus would bring it all together, they would have been blown away how he tied this new theology so deeply into the roots of their Passover feast, by becoming the Lamb of God, offered for the sins of the people, putting himself into the bread and wine, so much so, in fact, that bread and wine cease to exist.  His substance overtakes the substance of bread and wine (definition of transubstantiation).

(Excursus on Words Changing Reality)

Baseball analogy – Armando Galarraga of the Tigers was pitching the perfect game.  Two outs into the 9^th inning, the batter hits a grounder between 1^st and 2^nd.  The 1^st baseman fields the ball while Galarraga himself covers the base, clearly receiving the ball in his glove a good second before the runner tags the bag.  Galarraga had his perfect game, a no-hitter.  But the ump called the runner safe.  Everyone was shocked, and the replays showed he was out by a fair stretch, but, because the ump, a duly delegated and appointed official in the MLB, made the motion for and proclaimed the word “Safe,” reality was changed and the base-runner was safe.  There went the perfect game.

If words change reality all the time down the street at Turner Field because an ump says so, who are we to say that reality cannot change here at Christ the King because God says so?  We have bread and wine that, at the words and action of the Lord Jesus Christ, working through the priest, become the very body and blood of the Savior. 

This is a hard teaching.  And we have a question put before us.  “Will you also leave me?” asks the Lord.

What do we do with the hard teachings of the Lord?  Especially the two highlighted in today’s readings.  1) That marriage is an indissoluble union between one man and one woman, regardless of how culture may try to change that definition, and 2) that Jesus Christ is truly present here with us in the Eucharist, and he has commanded us to receive him.

Will we follow the ebb and flow of the tide of the world, swinging like an unstoppable pendulum, or will we exercise our faith and proclaim with Joshua, with Israel, with Peter and the Apostles, “Lord, to whom would we go?  YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF EVERLASTING LIFE?”  As for us, We Will Serve the Lord.