Jos. 24:1-2, 15-18 / Ps. 34:2-3, 16-23 / Eph. 5:21-32 / Jn. 6:60-69
This Sunday’s Mass readings conclude a four-week meditation on the Eucharist.
The 12 apostles in today’s Gospel are asked to make a choice—either to believe and accept the new covenant he offers in his body and blood, or return to their former ways of life.
Their choice is prefigured by the decision Joshua asks the 12 tribes to make in today’s First Reading.
Joshua gathers them at Shechem — where God first appeared to their father Abraham, promising to make his descendants a great nation in a new land (see Genesis 12:1-9). And he issues a blunt challenge — either renew their covenant with God or serve the alien gods of the surrounding nations.
We too are being asked today to decide whom we will serve. For four weeks we have been presented in the liturgy with the mystery of the Eucharist — a daily miracle far greater than those performed by God in bringing the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.
He has promised us a new homeland, eternal life, and offered us bread from heaven to strengthen us on our journey. He has told us that unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood we will have no life in us.
It is a hard saying, as many murmur in today’s Gospel. Yet he has given us the words of eternal life.
We must believe, as Peter says today, that he is the Holy One of God, who handed himself over for us, gave his flesh for the life of the world.
As we hear in today’s Epistle, Jesus did this that we might be sanctified, made holy, through the water and word of baptism by which we enter into his new covenant. Through the Eucharist, he nourishes and cherishes us, making us his own flesh and blood, as husband and wife become one flesh.
Let us renew our covenant today, approaching the altar with confidence that, as we sing in today’s Psalm, the Lord will redeem the lives of his servants.
