Readings for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Joshua 24:1-2, 15-17, 18
Psalm 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21
Ephesians 5:21-32 or 5:2, 25-32
John 6:60-69
When was the last time you had the opportunity to give public witness to Christian faith? Perhaps it was in the presence of co-workers or neighbors, or maybe among friends and family. Whenever we witness to faith, we realize the task is not easy. Yet through baptism Christians are given the strength and wisdom of the Holy Spirit to offer witness to faith in small or profound ways. And we are grateful for those Christians who are called to the ultimate witness of martyrdom.
We live in an age of Christian martyrdom. It is claimed that more Christians have been martyred in the 20th century than in the first four centuries of Christianity. Christians around the world face violent persecution today as they are forced to choose between renouncing their faith in Jesus Christ or violence and death. The threat of martyrdom calls forth a decisive test of courage and witness to Christ who walks with the martyrs in their suffering.
"Decide today whom you will serve," Joshua says to the tribes of Israel at Shechem in Sunday’s first reading. Throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites were faced with a choice – to live in covenant relationship with Yahweh or to fall into idolatry of pagan gods.
Whenever the Israelites wrestled with this choice, they recalled the good works of God. "For it was the Lord, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt. … He performed those great miracles before our very eyes," prayed the Israelites. This gratitude to God is echoed by the psalmist who sings with confident trust, "Many are the troubles of the just one, but out of them all the LORD delivers him."
In the Gospel, the disciples of Jesus face the same life changing decision. They can respond to Jesus’s invitation and follow the Lord or choose a life apart from God. Jesus reminds his disciples, and us, that following him will not be easy. Yet when we persevere in friendship with Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, our life opens to the love, joy and peace of God that surpasses understanding.
When we hear God’s word, we face a similar decision. We can choose to hear God’s voice and live in the wisdom of the divine word. On this path we choose life, love and genuine happiness. For only God who created us in love can meet the deepest desires of our heart beyond our expectations. God alone satisfies our longing for unconditional forgiving love. It is this knowledge that strengthens the martyrs who choose courageously to persevere in faith as disciples of Jesus. Their witness strengthens us to persevere in faith each day.
Jesus shows his disciples that faith is a gift of God. "… No one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father." Faith is a human act in response to God who reveals his loving mercy. As a gift of God, faith is freely and generously poured out on those who believe that Jesus has the words of eternal life.
We can be confident in Jesus’s assurance that "It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life."
We are told that some who heard Jesus’s words turned away and returned to their former way of life. And then the disciples had to decide whether or not they would continue to follow Jesus. In the face of this fundamental choice, Peter answers Jesus with his confession of faith saying, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."
God’s word invites us today to choose discipleship and to renew our faith in Jesus with the courage of the martyrs. May our faith, like that of Peter, be strengthened in the face of trials and difficulties both within and outside the Church, as we pray in faith, "speak to me, Lord."
Question: Who do I choose to serve today – God or self?
Jem Sullivan holds a doctorate in religious education and is an associate professor of catechetics in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
