Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading: : Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18 – We will serve the Lord, for he is our God.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33(34):2-3, 16-23 – Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Second Reading: Ephesians 5:21-32 – Christ loves the Church, because it is his body.

Gospel: John 6:60-69 – Who shall we go to? You are the Holy One of God.

 

In his “Prayer of the Frog” (vol. 1), Anthony de Mello told a story of a preacher who, one day, said to a friend, “We have just had the greatest revival our church has experienced in many years”. The friend asked, “How many did you add to your church membership?” “None”, the preacher replied, “we lost five hundred”.

You know, Jesus would have applauded. When a million people follow you, ask yourself where you have gone wrong. Could it be that you are serving them syrup for the gospel instead of medicine? People, generally, do not want truth. What they want is a confirmation of their already held belief. In your practice of Christianity, if you have never felt like leaving Jesus and stopping to go with him, then you have never really heard the truth of Christianity. All you have been getting is mere syrup and not medicine. Jesus had many followers who were following him for different reasons – some for food, some for miracles, only a few for truth. Those who sought food got more than they wanted; those who were after miracles experienced sufficient dose of it. But alas, when it came down to truth, they did not get what they bargained for. They wanted syrup; but they were instead given medicine. Like little children who are always scared of doctors and nurses because they give them medicines which may not be palatable but certainly curative, the people became disenchanted with Jesus for offering them the real medicine. Little children often run to their mothers who give them syrup. But as sweet as syrup might taste, it is at best a first aid. And when adults rush to those who only offer them syrup, it becomes a case of overgrown babies.

In the gospel of today, Jesus, who knew that the people were spiritually sick, offered them medicine and not syrup. He knew that only the truth will set them free. Hence, instead of confirming their already held beliefs and giving them false reassurance that all was well, he told them the naked truth in the form of the hard doctrines he taught them. The consequence of giving them the real doctrine, however, was that the people left him and stopped following him. They were simply allergic to truth and couldn’t bear the dose of medicine that Jesus was offering them. The people wanted him to focus on “social Christianity” by multiplying bread every day, but Jesus insisted on “spiritual Christianity”: He told them, “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life”.  But this was more than they could accept, and they left him. A Hindu sage was having the “Life of Jesus” read to him. When he learned how Jesus was rejected by his people in Nazareth, he exclaimed, “A rabbi whose congregation does not want to drive him out of town isn’t a rabbi”.

People’s attitude of hostility towards the truth has not changed even today. There is always a constant and conscientious effort to drag Christianity into becoming a mere social organization with all the social attractions that go with that. Any person who insists on bringing back the spiritual dimension of Christianity is perceived as odd, and is quickly abandoned. Even what we identify as “spirituality” today has nothing in common with what spirituality actually means. When we hear people say that so and so is not “spiritual” (by the way, who determines who is spiritual, and with what criteria?), it generally implies that the person challenges the commonly-held belief that spirituality means quoting the bible and shouting alleluia; it means that the person does not give them false reassurances that all is well. In a word, it means that the person does not deceive them as others do. But curiously, because people generally want to be deceived, they tag those who do not deceive them and who tell them the naked truth as not being spiritual. Remember, Jesus was never regarded as spiritual by his contemporaries. In fact, he was always accused of being too ordinary and not behaving like a prophet. So, it is not a new thing if we accuse people who tell us the truth of not being spiritual. However, if we sift through the hard and uncomfortable truth we are told, we shall realize, as Peter and the apostles did, that behind those hard truth is the message of eternal life; a message that will liberate you. When Joshua tells the people of Israel in today’s first reading to choose whom they wish to serve, he is telling us to choose between medicine and syrup. Of course, many will choose syrup because it is sweet. But it is only medicine that will get to the root of our spiritual illness. Choose wisely!

The second reading of today merits to be analysed. This passage of the Pauline letter has, for long, been used to justify male chauvinism. If a man wants to justify why his wife should remain perpetually enslaved, he always quotes this letter to the Ephesians that wives should submit to their husbands in everything because the husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. So far, this quotation is correct. But, don’t stop there. Read on! The next sentence says: “Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy”. The point is: Christ gave up his life for the church. How many men who demand total submission from their wives can give up their lives for them? They cannot give up even a bottle of beer or their favourite TV sports channel, and we are talking of giving up their lives? Yet, a woman must submit in everything. The two exhortations go hand in hand. Where one is absent, the other cannot be insisted upon. It was Christ who, as the head of the church, first sacrificed his life for the church before the church now submits to him. It was not the other way round. Christ did not first demand that the church submits to him; no.  The church, rather, saw that Christ, out of love, sacrificed his life for her, and as a consequence, decided to submit to him. In the same manner, husbands who quote this passage regularly must ask themselves whether, as the so-called head of the family, they have sacrificed anything for their wives. To pay a dowry, buy a house and buy a car, are not sacrificing anything. Whether you are married or not, you will still buy a car and build a house if you have the money. To sacrifice means to love his wife as his own body. The text further says that “a man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and this is the way Christ treats the church, because it is his body”. Many men hate their wives like hell, yet, they demand total submission. Have you noticed that it is those who don’t look after their wives that quote this text more often as a way of perpetually subjugating their wives?

Curiously however, many women contribute in perpetuating themselves in bondage when they regularly quote the one-sided aspect of this text as a way of “advising” their fellow women to shut up and go home and “submit” to their husbands. But the point is this: sacrifice and submission go hand in hand. Where one is lacking the other cannot be demanded. Be careful not to use the bible as a tool for enslavement. The bible is not written to enslave anyone but rather to liberate everybody.