(Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b Psalms 34 Ephesians 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32 John 6:60-69)
Today’s Gospel from John Chapter six has his followers questioning Jesus. Jesus reminds us that the Spirit gives life while the flesh is weak in describing his ascension. Our embodied souls long for more. Some of Jesus’s followers turned away from Jesus and went back to their former way of life because they could not comprehend that Jesus has the words of eternal life and is the path to God the Father. Peter’s proclamation of “where should we go…Jesus has the Words of Eternal life when some are leaving and going their separate ways is something for us to contemplate. Where shall we go?
Just like it was in the times of Jesus, we find in today’s time that some turn away from longing and living for the Word, Jesus, to give us life sustaining nourishment. We probably know some fallen away Christians that no longer believe. Perhaps we may sometimes allow the words of the world instead of the words of Jesus to consume our thoughts and taint our soul. It is easy to allow sin and the culture of complacency and conformity to maintain our status quo in life where we become like shallow roots without a firm foundation rooted in Christ Jesus (Mt. 13:23), who is the Word come down from heaven and has the words of eternal life (Jn. 1:1).
The Old Testament reading from Joshua also has a challenging and similar question for the ancient Israelites: to whom will you serve? Will they serve the one true God or other false gods? Many times in life we can let our faith life become weak where we put God in a compartmentalized box and allow shallow words of today’s culture to permeate our hearts and minds. We can become complacent and go in a different direction that is not of the Holy Spirit, which empowers us on our journey. We may serve other gods that take away from our prayer life and focus to place God first. Sometimes on our faith journey we can develop a form of selective hearing in which we hear only those words we want to hear that don’t challenge us to go deeper.
We must become contemplative Christians longing to immerse ourselves in the Holy Scripture and find the living Jesus in our midst where Jesus has the words of eternal life. Many times at Mass, we as Catholics lose sight of the importance of the first part of the Liturgy, with the Liturgy of the Word. To truly receive Jesus in the Eucharist…body, blood soul and divinity is to be attentive to the readings and meditate on the core truth from the responsorial psalm (34): Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. Where else can we go in this life, but to Jesus, who has the words of eternal life.
As the song lyrics from Guns N Roses Sweet Child O’ Mine reminds us – “Where do we go now, sweet child o’ mine” can lead to one answer – to the outstretched arms of Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life (Jn.14:6) as all of God’s adopted children made in His image.
StreetEvangelist 