A homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 25, 2024
Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b, Eph 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32, Jn 6:60-69
Many of us who worked in a corporate environment at one time or another probably remember team-building exercises.
A group of folks who work together — or who were going to work together — would trot off to a conference room and play Trivial Pursuit or some variation of Bingo to learn things about each other.
Or maybe we’d scoot over to a local park and have a three-legged race or scatter in twos in a scavenger hunt.
Then there was Do You Trust Me.
We’d pair off, ideally people about the same size, and one of us would fall backward into the other person’s arms. A literal “I’ve got your back” moment. A leap of faith. Well, a something of faith, anyway.
I remember being downright terrified the first time I was asked to do it.
I had a new boss and new co-workers; I didn’t know a thing about them, and they didn’t know me. Would my partner in this exercise be strong enough to catch my massive 135-pound frame? Would I be muscular enough to wrangle his?
Worst of all, was this some sort of trick? Was I going to crack my skull on the sidewalk while everybody pointed and laughed at me for being naive enough to lean back?
Of course, it all worked out, not only that first time but a whole bunch of times afterward. And every time after that, I became more and more trusting. I believed more and more in the goodness and decency of my co-workers and people in general.
But I do remember some people never did. They never fell back. They refused. Unh-unh. They never trusted their partner to catch them.
And most of those folks eventually quit.
Which made them a whole lot like the wanna-be disciples who abandoned Jesus, as today’s Gospel passage states.
For the past three weeks, we’ve heard in John’s Gospel how Jesus referred to himself as the Bread of Life, and how his own flesh and blood are food that will nourish believers as they journey to eternal life.
We’ve heard how badly this freaked some people out, how they wondered what Jesus was trying to tell them. Some of the people who heard this probably imagined Jesus holding out his right arm and telling people to take a bite.
No wonder some of them headed for the exits.
They didn’t believe anybody would be there to catch them if they leaned in, or leaned back, to this radical notion, this intense spiritual team-building exercise.
They couldn’t see the loving goodness and divinity of Jesus. He was just another weird guy, probably with a hidden evil streak, like so many other teachers who had disappointed them in the past.
They didn’t stick around long enough to see Christ’s Eucharist being revealed and given to humankind at the Last Supper.
But The Twelve did.
Speaking for the core dozen,
Simon Peter answered him, “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.”
The Apostles had taken a leap of faith, and they stuck the landing.
For the past three weeks, the Gospel readings have focused our attention on Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Like the many parables and metaphors throughout the four Gospels, the Bread of Life passages shine a spotlight on Christ as Messiah, as Savior, as Emmanuel, God-With-Us.
The Gospels have made it clear that Jesus is The One.
The Gospels have made it clear that he invites us to become one with him as his body on Earth. That he wants us to become what we receive — his body — when we receive the gift of the Eucharist.
And as his body, the Mystical Body of Christ, we have a job to do, a job that requires us to perform many separate tasks according to our God-given skills. A job that requires team building and team bonding. And some heavy lifting.
We are called to live the Gospel, to live according to Christ’s Law of Love for God and neighbor.
We are called to share the Gospel through our words and actions. To tell the people we meet about this Jesus guy, the only begotten Son of God … if the people we meet are willing to listen.
Remember: We evangelize — I love that fancy word — but we never proselytize.
We leave every person and every part of God’s Creation a little, or a lot, better than we found them, through huge works of charity and justice and, just as importantly, through tiny but significant random acts of kindness.
We invite the world to join Jesus and his team, to believe in Jesus and his team, and we assure every sister and brother we meet that Christ — and we — will catch them and uplift them every time.
