Does This Shock You?

21st SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Josh 24, 1-2, 15-18 / Eph 5, 2a,25-32 / John 6, 60-69

School is starting up, so we know the summer holiday is coming to an end.  And with today’s gospel we have come to the end of a month-long reflection on the sixth chapter of John’s gospel.  Now Jesus wants a response from us – a decision.  It’s much like what we heard in the first reading when Joshua puts it to the people: “Decide today whom you will serve!”  Like them – we have a decision to make.

In the gospel Jesus’ call for decision meets with strong resistance – from people who think themselves his disciples.  They say: “What you say to us, Jesus, is hard to accept.  But Jesus doesn’t relent.  He pushes the question: “Does what I have said shock you?”  But why should they be shocked?  Why should we be shocked?  What shocking thing is Jesus saying?

Many take Jesus’ words about himself as the Bread of Life in a very physical sense.  So the shock comes in Jesus telling us to actually eat his body.  “Take and eat!”  Yet in the gospel of John Jesus warns us about such an overly fleshy reading of his words.  He says: “It is the spirit that gives life, while flesh of itself is of no avail.  The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.”

Jesus is telling us: what we are to take and eat is his own Spirit and life.  When we take into ourselves Jesus’ Spirit and life – feed on Jesus’ way and values – his vision and style of life – then Jesus really is becoming our Bread of Life – the Bread for our Living.

We cannot talk about Eucharist without talking about change and transformation.  We talk about bread and wine being changed into Jesus’ real presence among us.  That is deeply true.  But we dare not put limits to God’s work.  God’s work of transformation has not only to do with bread and wine.  It has everything to do with us.  As we make Jesus our real Bread of Life by taking on his Spirit and life, then we are changed.  We are transformed.

We will experience our own transformation.  We will find ourselves living more self-forgetfully and loving more generously.  We will be shocked to recognize Jesus in who we are becoming.  We will be shocked to recognize in ourselves the Living Lord, the Risen Lord.

Jesus’ words change things.  “This is my body” changes bread and wine – changes us into “Body of Christ”.  And the words change the neighbor – fellow parishioner, fellow citizen – into “Body of Christ”.  But also the neighbor from afar – the refugee, the immigrant, the illegal – “Body of Christ”.  And the unacknowledged neighbor – the un-allowed, unwelcome neighbor:  the people kept on the margins of our society and our church – “Body of Christ”.  And finally the always unrecognized, unmentioned neighbor:  the enemy – whomever we fear or been told we should fear – “Body of Christ”.

Does what Jesus says shock us?  I think our shock shows we have understood what he is saying to us.

We have a phrase: “being a practicing Catholic”.  Jesus is telling us:  being a good, practicing Catholic requires we approach ourselves and the neighbor – the neighbor of every kind and degree – with the same reverence with which we come to the altar to receive Jesus’ Body and Blood.

Let our communion here in church this morning ready us for our communion in the streets tomorrow.

Fr. Pat Earl, SJ