We have to make a choice

WE HAVE TO MAKE A CHOICE

Jos. 24:1-2, 15-18 and Jn. 6:60-69

Have you ever thought how you would have behaved and reacted if you had been living at the time of Jesus, particularly when things were not going well for Him?  Would you have been for Him or against Him? 

The people in today’s Gospel had to make such a decision.  Were they going to side with Jesus or not?  We are told that many of them never walked with Him again when He told them that His flesh was real food and His blood was real drink, and that if they wanted to live forever, they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood.  The twelve Apostles too had to make a decision, but they decided they would stay with Jesus.  Would we have gone with the majority or would we have stayed like the Twelve? 

Why did these people decide to quit following Jesus?  It was because Jesus insisted that unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood they could have no life in them.  This was hard to accept.  Jesus was not being unreasonable.  They had witnessed so many of His miracles, the blind given their sight, the deaf and dumb being able to hear and speak, lepers cleansed, even the dead raised to life and recently they had witnessed Him feeding 5,000 people from just five loaves and two fish.  The response I think Jesus would have wanted was, “Is there anything You can’t do?  You are definitely an extraordinary Man.  We don’t know where You will lead us but we’ll go along with You.”  Instead they said, “This is intolerable language,” and never walked with Him again.

When they had gone Jesus asked the Apostles point blank, “What about you, do you want to go away too?”  I’m sure Peter, who now loved Jesus so much, could see the sadness in His eyes.  He realised how heartbroken Jesus was and so he quickly answered for them all, “Lord, to whom shall we go to?  You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that You are the Holy One of God.”  How those words must have pleased Jesus.  This was a critical moment in the lives of the Apostles, and they had made up their minds, they were not going to leave Him.  They came to this conclusion because they had discovered Jesus was the Son of God.  He had the words of eternal life.  He had captivated their hearts and they really loved Him.  In fact they could not live without Him.  What kind of hold does Jesus have on you and me?

Sooner or later something gets a hold on every one of us.  We cannot live very long in this world without some compelling influence taking hold of our lives.  What is it in your life and mine?  In the Old Testament reading we see Joshua confronting the people of Israel to make a choice.  He stood before them and said, “Choose today whom you wish to serve.  As for me and my House we will serve the Lord.”  That is the kind of option that faces all of us.  We all have a choice as to whom or what we will serve.  From the day we came into this world, all sorts of things start reaching out with strong hands trying to get a hold on our lives.  Sooner or later something gets us.  With some people it is drugs, alcohol, sexual exploitation, the love of money.  With others, it is devotion to family, loyalty to friends, a high vocation or some worthy cause.  Something gets us.  If it is not faith, its fear; if it is not hope, then despair; if not love, then selfishness.  These are the facts of life.

The Apostles could not leave Jesus because He had captivated their hearts.  If our choice is Jesus like the Apostles, we will find that being captured by Jesus is the most liberating experience we will ever know.  At first it might sound confining and oppressive but we shall see it is not so.  A man who gives himself to drink excessively is no longer free.  He becomes a slave to drink.  All he can do is to drink himself to death.  It is Christ who can captivate people and bring the best out of them.  Ask St. Paul the secret of his great life, and he would answer, “I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I now live is not mine, but Christ lives in me.”  Paul was a great man whose accomplishments we will never equal.  The message he, Peter and the rest of the Apostles offer us is that even ordinary men and women like themselves can be captivated by Jesus.   They became great because they belonged to something far greater than themselves.   

Lord Jesus, let us make our choice for You and say with Peter, “Lord, who shall we go to?  You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.”

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