23 August 2015 - to whom shall we go

If it does not please you to serve the LORD,
decide today whom you will serve,
the gods your fathers served beyond the River
or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. 
As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

We are being called to renew our commitment to the LORD our God this morning. We are called to remember that following God is not something into which we drift. It is something which we must consciously choose and affirm. And this is not just done once. It is not as though the people children of Israel choose God to bring them out of Egypt and then are free to coast along after that.

For it was the LORD, our God,
who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt,
out of a state of slavery. 
He performed those great miracles before our very eyes
and protected us along our entire journey
and among the peoples through whom we passed. 
Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

We remember all the blessings he has already given us. We celebrate the freedom of spirit we now enjoy. This is how we trust him enough to give him all that we are today. He first proves his love for us. We in turn respond with our whole hearts. Then, when what he requires of us increases we are still able to follow him.

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, “Does this shock you?

Jesus is divisive insofar as a choice to trust him or not to trust him is necessary. He wants to unite the whole world in himself. But unity must be in truth. And we are free to trust the one who is the way, the truth, and the life, or to not trust him. We can accept the truth that he gives us our we can make up something else. He will not give us less than the truth for the sake of acceptance. But he will give us the Spirit to help us to receive it. The Father himself calls us. He draws us to the place where we can lay down our need to grasp and understand everything by the power of our own intellect. He himself sends the Spirit to give us the mind of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 2:16) so that we can understand in a new way.

Then, when Jesus puts the question to us, "Do you also want to leave?" we are able to answer with Simon Peter:

“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.”

We don't fully understand this in the way that we understand with our intellects. But we do perceive the truth in what is said. We perceive it even more deeply than anything else we know. Now that we understand in this way, with the mind of Christ, Jesus can create the unity among us which he desires.

For no one hates his own flesh
but rather nourishes and cherishes it, 
even as Christ does the church,
because we are members of his body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.

Humanly, it seems hard to  accept. But we are invited, not to figure it out, but to taste and see the goodness of the LORD. At mass our attention is constantly tempted to wander. It is as though we hear Jesus asking if we will leave him too. But he gives us the grace to remain with him and confess, "You have the words of eternal life."