OMELIE / Omelie EN

25 ago 2024

25/08/2024 - 21st Sunday in O. T. - B

25/08/2024 - 21^st Sunday in O. T. - B

Reading 1 JOS 24,1-2.15-17.18 Psalm 33 Reading 2 EPH 5,21-32 Gospel JN 6,60-69

Joshua’s intervention towards the tribes of the people of Israel recounted in the first reading is beautiful and thoughtful. He asks everyone to express themselves one by one and freely by choosing their own path. To serve the Lord who has let them cross the desert or to serve the gods of other nations?

To serve the Lord, the one who had spoken to Moses, means accepting to live by obeying His commandments, the ten words of the wise, but demanding, which do not allow for instincts and whims and do not bend to the changing of the feelings.

To follow the gods of the nations is way easier: it is enough to follow some ritual and be careful about some taboos, without pledging the heart. The gods of the nations are fulfilled by little and completely fulfil every whim and instinct of the men’s heart and body.

The life of those who serve the Lord will become stable, faithful, humble and orderly, and it will be worth everyone’s trust.

The life of those who serve the gods is not trustworthy, because the gods allow them to change what they like at all times.

Joshua publicly declares his choice, fearlessly, without fear of men, joyfully and lovingly. His choice helps others to decide promptly. Everyone then decide to serve the God who had shown love for them. By looking at the love shown by God in the history of His people they could choose freely and without hesitation.

This event is introducing us to listening to the Gospel: many disciples choose to abandon Jesus, despite the fact that they had eaten the bread distributed to the five thousand and had seen many miracles. They are giving up on “the spirit that gives life” to follow their own point of view and therefore their own whims.

Jesus, like Joshua, is asking the Twelve too to make a choice. He had been the one choosing them one by one and now He is asking them to make clear their own free answer. He does not want puppets with Him, and neither people compelled to stay with Him, not even galvanised by the miracles, or by the closeness of a superficial friendship. He only wants with Him men and women who love Him without personal interests, unconditionally, who love Him because they know He is going to the Father even if the way is narrow, the way of the cross.

He does not change direction in His path, on the contrary He is open to be left by Himself, without disciples. In fact, He asks: “Do you also want to leave?”. Will we be able to give Peter’s answer, too? Will we be able to tell Jesus that we do not mind suffering if we can be always with Him? Will we be able to choose to stay with Jesus even when everyone around us is abandoning us? To be alone rather than being left without Him? We have many occasions to answer these questions with our actions.

Saint Paul is making us think of a specific and frequent aspect of the Christians’ life: the married life. Christian spouses live their togetherness as a sign of God’s mystery. They promise each other faithfulness, the one they receive from the Holy Spirit. The faithfulness they will live includes not giving themselves to or entrusting themselves to anyone else but their spouse, not even by desire, and, on top of this, persevering in the mutual love until the death of one of them frees the other from this commitment. In fact, the mystery their faithful love is a sign of is Jesus’s love for the Church and the love of the Church for Jesus: this is a love which never ends, not even in case the children of the Church were to become unfaithful and sinners.

As Jesus’s love has endured to the point of dying for the Church, so the husbands love the wife even when faithfulness becomes suffering. And, since the Church is subordinate to Jesus, the wives will live their love by being subordinate to the husbands. Both people’s love is a divine mystery: they who choose it are those who love the Lord more than themselves.

Among the Christians, not many have such a mature faith to take upon themselves this life, and persevere. We thank those who do so, even if they are still young! And we also strengthen our prayer for all the families: the Lord will listen to us, like He has promised to always listen to His children!