Gospel Reflection for Sunday August 25th 2024 – 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr Brian Maher OMI

Gospel Reflection for Sunday August 25th 2024, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time | John 6:60-69

Could you imagine Donald Trump’s PR team, or Kamala Harris’ team for that matter, issuing a statement saying that many voters were so put off by what he/she was saying that they were now leaving and going elsewhere? Of course you couldn’t imagine that! It would be political suicide to issue such a statement.

Yet this is exactly what John says in this week’s Gospel, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? … From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”  Sometimes non-believers and those who try to undermine the Gospel say that they were written by the close followers of Jesus, after his death, inventing a resurrection story and creating a ‘new religion’ in an attempt to become powerful and wealthy. If ever that is suggested in your hearing, point them to this Gospel!

…And maybe that is the point. The Gospels were not written to attract believers or entice others to join ‘the Jesus movement’. The Gospels were written for those who were already believers, enabling them to be certain that the stories they were told about Jesus were true and accurate. The Gospels were written, to use modern terms, to dispel ‘conspiracy theories’, counter ‘fake news’ and give believers a document they could use to ‘fact-check’ what they might be told by others calling themselves ‘Christian’.

They are filled with hope and joy, not to persuade anyone to believe, but simply because Jesus was a person who was filled with hope and joy. They are supportive and encouraging because Jesus was supportive and encouraging. They accept that suffering, pain, disappointment, and even death, are part of being human and they never diminish or run away from the reality of the cross. Why? Because Jesus experienced all of these things in his own life, and he found a way through them to the victory of the resurrection.

The message of Jesus was the Kingdom of God. That is what he preached – that is all he preached – from his baptism in the Jordan, “The time has come. The Kingdom of God is very near…”, to his last words on the cross to the ‘good’ thief, “…this day you will be with me in Paradise”.

Sometimes I wonder if we don’t hear the ‘…of God’ in the  ‘Kingdom …of God’. Something that is ‘…of God’ stands by itself and does not need or rely on us to make it happen. When Jesus, in ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, said “…thy Kingdom come…” he was praying that God would make it happen. He was not intimating that he would make it happen, or that his followers would make it happen.

The Kingdom preached by Jesus is coming, that is certain; and it is certain because it is ‘of God’. It would be a mistake, I think, to ever imagine that the coming of the Kingdom of God is dependent on us or on anything we do or say. The “Kingdom of God” is not some super-human ‘Club’ with rules and admission criteria determined by us.

In today’s Gospel Jesus says what seems to be a strange thing, “…no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”  It is a statement much discussed by scholars for many years. Is Jesus saying that God’s Kingdom is only for some chosen few? Is the Kingdom of God to be the Spiritual equivalent of the ‘fair-haired, blue-eyed Arian race’ Hitler sought to create? or is it like some ‘elite human golf Club’ for ‘men only’ or for those with a handicap 5 or under!

Certainly, what Jesus said can be interpreted as talking about a predestined group chosen by the Father. However, that troubles me. Everything I know of Jesus tells me that the Kingdom he preached was not exclusive in any way. Did he not infuriate the Temple authorities by making it clear that the Kingdom of God would not come with armies of angels ready to destroy Israel’s enemies, but would come with forgiveness and an open invitation for everyone – equally?

We must, therefore, seek a meaning for this statement which is compatible with everything else Jesus said. And there is one.

Just as stated above, the Kingdom preached by Jesus is the Kingdom …of God.  It is the Father’s Kingdom. It is the Father – and only the Father – who ‘enables’ entry. There is nothing in the statement that is exclusive. There is nothing to say that the Father does not invite ‘everyone’ to be part of the Kingdom. For me, that is the only meaning that resonates with the rest of Jesus’ teaching.

All are invited to be part of God’s Kingdom, but the invitation is from God and God alone, and the criterion for entry is determined by God and God alone. Not everyone will accept the invitation, which is their right in freedom.

Nothing saps energy and life faster that feeling responsible for something that is too much for us. Unrealistic expectations and demands cause burn-out, breakdown, depression, anxiety, and sadly, for too many wonderfully gifted people, suicide. Wasn’t one of Jesus’ criticisms of the Pharisees and Sadducees that they, “tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”?

Jesus, in this Gospel, promises that his words are “…full of the Spirit and life.” This is the opposite to that which is energy-sapping or exhausting … and his words are full of the Spirit and life precisely because it is God’s Kingdom he preaches – not ‘my’ Kingdom, or even ‘our’ Kingdom.

We do not need to worry or be anxious about God’s Kingdom. It is in good hands – God’s hands!

We are invited to enjoy the life of the Kingdom without feeling that we are responsible for it. We do not need to worry about who can enter or not enter, and we do not need to draw-up and oversee contracts for entry or exclusion. We can truly sit back, relax, and “enjoy the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21)

Pope Francis in “The Joy of the Gospel” talks about the Gospels being “a great stream of joy flowing to eternal life…” and he asks what prevents us jumping into it? The answer has to be that we somehow see the Gospels as so important, that instead of just enjoying them, we worry and fret and feel responsible for them.

On a few occasions I have watched children playing happily on a ‘bouncy castle’. They bounce and fall and throw themselves with utter abandon. But as an adult looking on, or the person responsible for hiring the bouncy castle, I see only the child who forgot to take her shoes off and will without doubt land on a seam and puncture it, or the child who is bouncing too high and will surely injure themselves or someone else. Instead of enjoying the fun the children are having, or maybe even taking off my own shoes and joining in! I stand outside wringing my hands and uttering dire warnings that the ‘end of the world is nigh!’

Truly we must learn to listen to what Jesus says to us. Each week in the Eucharistic Prayer we say that we are “coheirs to eternal life.” Coheirs – do we believe that? When Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants, I call you friends…” ‘Friends’ – do we believe that? And when Jesus said, “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you…” –  Do we believe that? When John talks about eating ‘the flesh and drinking the blood’ of Jesus he is thinking about the Eucharistic bread and wine, but also the words of Jesus, his way of life, his values, his forgiveness, his compassion, his wisdom, his gentleness, his acceptance, his…… . It is in all of these things that we have eternal life.

I stated last week that I sense something utterly awesome in the Gospels of the last four weeks; something, as yet, out of my reach. Finding that something will enable me, I hope, to answer the ultimate, ‘overwhelming’ question of the Gospels: “Who do YOU say that I am?”

At the end of today’s Gospel Peter looks into the face of Jesus and sees anguish, self-doubt, fear and sadness. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” he says to his apostles. We will never know what it was, but something in that question, or maybe in the face of Jesus, opened the heart of Peter and enabled him to answer for himself that ‘overwhelming’ question Jesus had asked him earlier: “And you, Peter, who do you say that I am?”

Now Peter could answer, with utter conviction, “We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” It was no longer just ‘belief’ or ‘faith’. Now he could say that ‘I KNOW’ that you are the Holy One of God. He had answered for himself the overwhelming question of the Gospel and his answer was unshakable.

It was an answer that shaped the rest of Peter’s life. At heart Peter was a Galilean fisherman, happiest in his boat, with his nets. Leadership was thrust upon him; he travelled beyond the borders of his home and country; he was imprisoned and beaten; finally he suffered the same death as his friend, Jesus – crucifixion.

Each one of us, at some point, must look into our hearts and let Jesus ask us that same ‘overwhelming question’ – “…Who do you say that I am?”

And we must answer it knowing that, once answered, there is no going back. Just like Peter, our answer will shape the rest of our lives. We do not know where our answer will lead us, but we do know that Jesus will be with us, physically and spiritually, really and truly, and if “…we eat his flesh and drink his blood…” we will have life in us – eternal life in us.

Many thanks,

Brian.