21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B. By Tobe Eze

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B.

FIRST READING
Joshua 24:1—2a, 15—17, 18b

SECOND READING

Ephesians 5:21—32

GOSPEL
John 6:60—69

THEME: THE CHURCH IS NOT A RESTING PLACE.

Some think that church is a refugee camp that you will run to when things get hard for you. It is not that the church cannot help in that aspect but it is not the primary duty of the church. Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese Most Rev. Prof. Godfrey Igwebuike Onah in his 2014 Lenten pastoral message Volumus Jesum Videre (we want to see Jesus), said,  There is difference between a child that ran to an elder’s house because he is pursued by a masquerade and a child that prepared and went to visit an elder in his house. The first, when the masquerade is gone, he/she will leave. Even when the child is still in the house, he/she will learn nothing from the elder because he/she seeks only protection that time. But when it comes to a child that prepared and went to an elder, there will be discussions and he/she will learn a lot from the elder. Tomorrow he/she will come back again for more but the other will not return unless the masquerade is back. That is the same way some of us practice our Christian life. Our church is not a bed of roses, it is a church filled with many sufferings that have hope. If we are choosing Christianity to escape suffering, we are making a serious mistake. Continue Reading...............

In the first reading, Joshua asked the Israelites to choose the God they will serve. They quickly chose the God Joshua and family have chosen thinking that they will never experience any hardship with him again. It is not all that way but there is a way out. That way is what we can see now in the second reading.

The second reading talks about unconditional love that should exist among us as Christians. St. Paul used the love that exists between husband and wife, and Christ and his church. Since we have known that Christ loves us so much, why do we not love him back? He offered himself for us and he is expecting us to do the same to him. How can we do that? St.  Paul illustrated it well in this second reading that talks about the first church one attends. The first God’s people which is family. Serious love should exist between husband and wife so that that love will extend to the children. Husbands should love their wives, and wives should respect their husbands for they are their heads. Christ is the husband of his church which we are part of, which means we have to respect him for he is our head. Things we experience in this journey of love are not always palatable but to whom shall we go? The gospel can tell better.

The gospel is the continuation of last week’s own. After talking about eating his body and drinking his blood, some of his disciples could not take the teaching again and in today’s gospel, they left him. When they have left, he turned to his apostles and asked them if they were not joining them. The answer Peter gave should be a lesson to all of us and it should be ringing bells in our ears and heads everyday of our lives.  "Do you also want to leave?" 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." To whom shall we go if we leave the one who has the message if eternal life?

Some of us made the choice of becoming Christians and some were forced or persuaded by others to join. When some came, they accepted all the teachings of the church but some came and saw that it is not a bed of roses and decided to do like some of the disciples in the gospel. They either left the Catholic Church to other churches or they went back to African traditional religion and some just decided not to take up any again.

Our church is a church of crosses and crowns. We must embrace them in order to be good Christians. If we wish to take graces from God, we should also be ready to take grasses. (Job 2:10). The church is only a means not an end in itself. It is not a resting place rather a way to the resting place. THANKS AND HAPPY SUNDAY.