Deacon Mike Meyer / Sunday, August 22, 2021 / Categories: Homilies Decisions, Decisions, Decisions Homily for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Decision, decisions, decisions—life is full of them. Pancakes or waffles? Coke or Pepsi? Boxers or briefs? In a country that’s blessed with many choices, scientists say that we make some 35,000 decisions a day. Occasionally, they’re monumental, some are important, but most are trivial. Our faith life is full of decisions, too, but every one of them has eternal consequences. Our readings this evening make that clear. In our first reading, Joshua’s pretty blunt when he calls for a take-it-or-leave-it commitment from the Israelites. “Choose either the God who brought you through the desert or the attractive gods around you.”[1] As the Israelites wandered through the desert and entered the Promised Land, they interacted and sometimes even assimilated with the cultures they encountered. As a result, their commitment to the God of Abraham waned over time, and Joshua would have none of it. He “demanded that they pledge absolute commitment to the God of the Exodus,”[2] and the Israelites faced a difficult decision. Likewise, in our Gospel, the disciples face a difficult decision. Jesus just told them that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have life within them, and they rightfully point out that “this saying is hard; who can accept it?” Many decide to leave him, but the Twelve choose wisely, acknowledging that only Jesus has the words of eternal life. The Christian message challenges human existence on every level. It demands “an act of surrender to Christ, an acceptance of him as the final authority; and it demands a moral standard of the highest level.”[3] That’s a lot to ask, and Jesus knows it, but he also knows that the rewards are out of this world. It’s up to us, then, to discern what the demands of Christianity mean for us, especially the difficult parts, and make a decision. Our second reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians is a great example of a difficult teaching, at least for half of us, which is probably why it’s the most avoided passage in the Lectionary. “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands.” Many preachers choose the shorter option from the Lectionary to avoid this language, but not your fearless preacher. It’s part of Scripture, so I don’t think we should avoid it. So at the risk of being run out of town on a rail, I’d like for us to consider the passage together. Controversial Bible passages challenge us to make difficult decisions. Will we accept them as containing revelatory truth or dismiss them as patently wrong or anachronistic? Will we take them at face value even if it produces an absurd result or delve deeper to find the true meaning behind the text? Saint Paul’s statement about women being subordinate is controversial for good reason—it’s been manipulated for millennia to subject women to patriarchal structures, domination, and abuse. These injustices are particularly poignant today as we watch the Taliban take control of Afghanistan, threatening women’s rights and lives in their wake. So how do we interpret a difficult passage like this? First, we have to understand the text in its context. This passage reflects the patriarchal structure of first-century society, norms that are no longer acceptable in many societies today. Rather than getting all huffy with the text, we have to appreciate that Paul’s using words that his culture would understand. Scripture speaks to all times, though, so these first-century cultural influences aren’t essential to finding the truth of God’s Revelation in the passage. We need to look beyond them to find the meaning behind the text. We also have to remember that it’s believed that Saint Paul wasn’t married, so he didn’t have a wife to help him choose his words more carefully. Second, we have to appreciate what this passage can’t mean. We, as Catholics, accept the Bible as true,[4] but not always as literally true. For example, through scientific discovery we know that the universe wasn’t created in seven days, as we hear in Genesis, a fact that’s in no way inconsistent with the revealed truth that God created everything in God’s time. Biblical passages must be understood, then, in the light of faith and reason, “the two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.”[5] On the faith side, scriptural interpretations have to be consistent with Scripture as a whole. As a result, any interpretation that contravenes the revealed truth that God created each of us equally, regardless of gender, race, creed, and color, or that denies the dignity that God bestowed on every human being can’t be true. On the reason side, scriptural interpretations can’t produce absurd results, so manipulating a passage to abuse or control another person can’t be true either. The Christian message, and, therefore, this passage, isn’t about control and abuse; it’s about love, so every Bible passage and every Church teaching must be interpreted in the light of love. Bearing in mind the cultural influences, faith, and reason, we have to delve deeper into what the text really means. This passage is part of Saint Paul’s Household Code, teachings intended to promote family harmony with Jesus Christ as our model. You’ll note that the passage opens by saying, “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.” That language sets the standard for the whole passage. It’s calling each of us, female and male, to be subordinate to each other, as Christ subordinated himself throughout his life, passion, and death. Although the vocabulary differs, wives and husbands are held to the same standard in our text—the standard of Jesus’ perfect example, the standard of humble, self-sacrificing love that never imposes its will on another. Read in the light of love, then, our passage reveals that women should offer humble, self-sacrificing love to their husbands, and husbands should offer humble, self-sacrificing love to their wives. I don’t know about you, but as the father of two young women, the meaning behind the text makes my decision to accept it as the revealed Word of God much easier. The Christian life is full of decisions. Today’s readings alone challenge us to decide which God we’re going to follow, how we react to difficult texts and teachings, and whether we’re going to follow Jesus or leave him. Jesus asks us today and every day of our lives the same question he posed to the Apostles: “Do you also want to leave?” Nothing less than eternal life with God hinges on our response. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Readings: Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17,18b; Psalm 34; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69 [1] Mary McGlone, “Scandalously Ordinary,” National Catholic Reporter 57, 22 (August 6, 2021), 19. [2] Ibid. [3] William Barclay, The Gospel of John, vol. 1, The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 264. [4] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 107. [5] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Fides et ratio (14 September 1998) 1, https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html. A Little News The Walls of a Playground Print 391 Please login or register to post comments.