Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 25, 2024

I hope that everyone has read the cover story of the latest issue of our diocesan magazine Catholic Times. It has to do with a person who was addicted to pornography, and this person is very, very forthright in describing the things which go on in the minds and in the feelings of all of us. And we realize that this is one example of the way in which people chase after various objects which we think will provide us with contentment and turn out to be anything but. 

 

We have read from the Book of Joshua near the end of that book.  Joshua was the immediate successor of Moses. Now the people are in the long promised land of their own. And Joshua questions the people about their intentions.  He asks whether they will continue to serve the one true God, the Lord. They say, "We will." We know, however, that many, many people did forget about the Lord, and we can understand why. The Israelites were surrounded by neighboring peoples who had various gods and these gods had images, and there were people who were convinced that their various gods took care of things like the weather and fertility and the growth of crops. And they said, "You should pray to this god." And many people did so. 

 

It is hard for the Israelites and for us to remain fixed on the one true God who cannot be captured in any image. And so we struggle, and at times we find ourselves caught up in worship, you could say, of objects which are far from God. We think about our primary commitments, our marriages, and we have heard a teaching of St. Paul in Ephesians about how marriage is intended to be a reflection of the love that Jesus has for his bride,  the Church. There is a lot of context to be aware of as we come to understand the meaning of these words. And I would say statistically, when it comes to matters of abuse in marriages, statistically it's more often the men abusing the women rather than the other way around. But it is possible to apply it both ways. There are multitudes of men who do not know anything from the Bible except "Wives, be subordinate to your husband." And that's where they stop, and that's what they think the wife should respond to in the sense of, yes, you have to be totally my servant. Well, it is not correct. The context is very clear. Husbands are to love their wives as Jesus has loved the church, sacrificing himself completely. So we need to be clear about that because if a spouse is merely an object, you are not treating the spouse or yourself with dignity. 

 

And finally, we come to the end of our five Sundays of reading from John chapter six about the bread of life. And it is disappointing to hear of all the people who abandon Jesus. It is encouraging, however, to hear the faith-filled words of Peter: "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." He is expressing a faith which remains fixed on the God who cannot be seen. Now, God the Son did become human. That's who Jesus is. The full mystery of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit remains hidden from us. So we struggle as the Israelites did in the time of Joshua.

 

We have God's Word. We have the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist by which we remain united with the mystery. So we continue as people being fed by Word and sacrament, encouraging one another not to fall for the various objects we find in life, even if they happen to be good. We can reach a point where we say, yes, there are many good things in our life and I can enjoy them. I don't have to possess them. In fact, if I just keep my heart on the gift of God himself, other things will become much less important. And that makes for a life of great simplicity.