Twenty First Sunday of the Year B

The last five Sundays have taken us from the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fishes to the passage from the same chapter of St John, chapter 6. We have come to the climax of the story - we have journeyed from provision to decision.

We have now come to a defining moment, a climax, a denouement, in modern parlance 'a game-changer'.

Everything has led to this focal point and all from now on hinges or turns on what we hear and read in the passage today.

Jesus invites and challenges us - individually, personally, uniquely and collectively as as a people.

It is very much like a pivotal decision in any relationship. In any couple’s life they decide that ‘this is it’ - this is the person I will marry.  This is the person I will spend the rest of my life with. Or the couple part -their minds are set in opposite directions – this is NOT the person for me, an engagement is broken off. There is heartbreak and tears.

In any friendship however there will be a crisis moment, a challenge to greater fidelity. If the test is all-defining then the friendship will last and deepen or it drifts apart and things are never the same. Friends may even then become acquaintances or colleagues and sometimes even drop out of our lives for good. Situations change and people change.

Jesus and the people who follow Him come to a crossroads, a test; it is an all-defining moment.

As popularity wanes, integrity and identity in friendship and relationships increase. The Jews are in the majority, Jesus remains in the centre, while the disciples - very much in the minority – must decide, must choose one way or the other.

It is one of those key moments, one of the key questions that Jesus asks – maybe one that is the most important of all. It is a decisive issue, a test of loyalty and friendship.

‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’

Someone who stands by you, someone ‘there’ for you, when others fail to pass the test or make the grade.

People can surprise us and disappoint us in equal measure in a time of crisis, be it sickness or bereavement – the people who make an effort and those who couldn’t be bothered. People can be ‘hail fellow, well met’ to our faces but will show their true colours eventually. We will never forget the kindness of those who showed up to visit us in hospital or at our sick bed, or who made contact when they could not be physically present.

We remember with gratitude those who were there for us, and likewise to our pain and disappointment we will never quite view the same way again those who let us down when we had every right to expect them to be there. We take it personally, as a slight that they neglected us, were careless and thoughtless - they failed to take our feelings into consideration, even though we are called by Christ to forgive them, their seeming excuses and justification, where they exist, ring hollow to our ears. They are not true friends. They are great talkers, but it is all empty bluster to ears because they failed to ‘walk the walk’.

Yet to our delight and surprise some people are amazing. They came out of the blue to our aid, helped us financially, took the time to listen, and were genuine and sincere when they did so. We never knew they had it in them. We are gratified by their consideration and thoughtfulness. We excuse a lot of their other faults when we see the trouble they go to on our account on this occasion. The little effort they made is never forgotten – especially those who, on the day of a removal or funeral, make same-day round trips from Dublin or elsewhere.

But when people fail to reciprocate our kindness to them, it can be painful and deeply hurtful. ‘Eaten bread is soon forgotten.’ No truer moment is that proverb than John 6. What grieves us, like Jesus, is that people turn their backs on us when we have been kind to them.

Yes people make mistakes, can be clumsy, awkward, imperfect, inconsistent, maddening. Yet such is the fallen human race, and that too is the Church in its members! Certainly misunderstandings can and do occur through lack of clarity and sometimes explanations and apologies must be made.  The Lord is merciful and is always ready to take us back, but we must accept all that He is and what He stands for.

It is a friendship and relationship like no other because it is about trust and faith, and promises yet to be fulfilled, and sights yet to be seen. We have His word, and we take Him at His word, and He takes us at our word too.

It is the proclamation of the Eucharist that is the defining teaching and moment, the ‘showdown’.

We do fail each other through mutual carelessness, thoughtlessness, clumsiness. But allowing for occasional lapses (in ourselves too), friends generally are the ones who show up, and don’t show us up!

The crowds who have been fed cannot go one extra step towards Jesus. Jesus’ careful and public demonstration of His divine power seems to fail to impress at a faith level.

Peter speaks for the disciples, and come to think of it, speaks for you and me too when he says: ‘to whom else shall we go?

In other words: ‘who can satisfy my (our) deepest longings like you do? Where else, or from who else will I hear the truth? Who else can save me from myself? Yes this is a difficult teaching. The Jews said so – as we saw last week when it is recorded that they asked: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ today is added: ’who can accept it?’

I will - whatever the cost to myself, my image, my popularity, or loss of former friends. I am with Christ in this and in all things He says. It may not be the popular thing, but it is the right thing to do.

We each have a faith decision to make. No matter what others say – even in my family. We live in times that challenge us, when people leave church in large numbers – to be identified as Catholics publicly. This manifests itself most of all in Mass attendance. It is easy to turn away, God knows, the Church I some if her members has given ample evidence of failing to represent Christ in the mission and calling in their lives. We are faced with a decision today as well. Pope John Paul II said more or less the same thing in 1979 –‘Ireland must choose’.

Christ feeds us with Himself on our earthly journey. It is the mystery of faith par excellence.

Consciously, unconsciously we have made the decision to ‘hang in there’.

What we are saying today is ‘Yes, I accept’, once more, on Christ’s terms, even when it is difficult to be identifiable as His friend and follower, against the grain of so called popular opinion that is media-generated, no matter what the elusive ‘they’ say in opinion polls.

Like Joshua – a name that prefigures and in fact is a variation of the name Jesus which means ‘God saves’ – we say once more, even if it is difficult, but ever mindful of the Lord’s past dealings of mercy on us:

‘As for me and my House, we will serve the Lord.’