21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18; Eph 5:21-32; Jn 6:60-69
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
23 Aug 2009
For the last few weeks we have heard readings from John's gospel on the "Bread of life"; a term with a variety of meanings ranging from Christ's teachings to the final section where Jesus announced that he would give his flesh to eat and his blood to drink.
Like Our Lord's followers who found his teaching intolerable, we take his message seriously and his meaning literally.
Unlike the deserters, we accept Jesus' teaching, so that the Eucharist is not for us only a beautiful symbol but actually his Body and Blood.
Ironically Protestant Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, who regularly accept the literal meaning of New Testament passages, do not accept these verses at their face value and do not believe in the Real Presence. This is a logical conundrum, explained only by history, by the Protestant rejection of Catholic understandings of Eucharist and Holy Communion.
The gospel passage concludes with the Apostle Peter's beautiful reply to Jesus' query on whether they also wished to leave: "To whom can we go?" Peter exclaimed. "We believe you have the message of eternal life and that you are the Holy One of God". Because of his divinity, Our Lord's teachings have a unique and unequalled authority.
Complaints, of course, are common in every generation and I suspect the Jews could sometimes be expert complainants.
Joshua was obviously having trouble at Shechem, where he gathered his followers to ask whether they were remaining faithful or choosing other paths.
In ancient times nearly everyone believed in a god or gods, but tribes and national groups had their own god, which they preferred and hoped was more powerful than the god of their enemies or neighbours. It was something like the way many of us each has a football team. Only gradually did the Jews realise that not only was their God the most powerful, but that he was the only God.
There is only one true God to be adored. Therefore Jews and Moslems as well as us are monotheists, worshipping the one true God, even though Jewish and Islamic understandings of God are different from ours, and partly deficient and misleading.
What about today? We find a sizable minority who regard some Catholic teachings as intolerable, because we have in Australia a religious situation characterised by a decline in regular practice and even significant disaffiliation among Catholics and all mainline Christian groups.
Unfortunately we have an increasing number of "C and E" Catholics, who only attend Mass at Christmas and Easter, and another group, even more loosely affiliated of "F. W." Catholics, not fair weather Catholics, although some of them emerged during World Youth Day, but those who front up only for weddings and funerals.
And of course we have the traditional "R. Cs", the resting, relaxed or reluctant Catholics – even when they are not retired.
Not all is gloom and doom as World Youth Day, and the 45 seminarians for the Sydney Archdiocese demonstrate, along with the 28 new acolytes to be instituted later in this Mass. Probably too in most parishes we have more people at daily Mass than ever, although I suspect many of them are grandparents praying that the faith of their grandchildren strengthens.
In my limited experience one category seems to be disappearing, the "N. A. G." Catholics, the group who, towards the end of a wedding reception would tell you that they were not good Catholics. With conscience now given such an increased and flexible role, people are tempted to think they are as good a Catholic as the Pope, even though they do very little religiously. It is a dangerous spiritual blindness to feel we are doing well when, in fact, we are performing poorly.
Why are adults, even teenagers, drifting away? Inadequate religious education programmes have contributed, although we are working hard to improve this. Fashions and styles come and go and at the moment the one true God is not particularly fashionable, although a non-demanding interest in spirituality, preferably of the New Age variety, has its adherents.
A central cause of dissatisfaction especially for young adults is traditional Christian teaching on sexuality, marriage and life issues. Advertisers and the media relentlessly push the line that these Christian doctrines are old fashioned and impossibly difficult, while they maintain a disciplined silence on the costs of sexual revolution, which range from abortion to broken marriages to disturbed children to sexually transmitted diseases.
The passage from Paul to the Ephesians explains the beautiful Christian teaching on marriage between a man and a woman. Paul is sometimes criticised today for espousing the male headship of a marriage and family, but the standards Paul set for a husband's love of his wife are almost impossibly high. He must love her as much as he loves himself, as much as Christ loves the Church.
Christian teaching such as this and the teaching on monogamous life-long marriage revolutionised the position of women in ancient society, where they had no rights, received little education and were in the power of their husbands. Abortion and infanticide were common and girls were the prime victims.
Today too, despite the hostile propaganda, Christian teaching on sexuality and marriage, linking indissolubly love, sexual activity and openness to life, still provides the best long term protection for husband and wife and for their children.
We should encourage our young people to be proud to be Catholic and to have the courage to proclaim their faith when challenged. Even the best of them can on occasion be a bit timid.
More importantly we must show them that, despite our weakness we regularly strive to practice what we preach. Please God we shall be able to offer to our young examples of regular goodness, dignity and inner peace, rather then appearing as non-performing pains in the neck.
But most of all we must pray for the young that the flame of faith will continue to burn brightly in their hearts.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
