Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b, Psalm 34, Ephesians 5:21-32, John 6:60-69
The predominant question for me these days is, “Are you settling in/adjusting okay?” I’m sure many of you are wondering this also. The answer is yes, all in all, I am settling in just fine. People have been very kind and welcoming. The community is great. Things are good.
At the same time, it is like drinking from a fire hose, I am just learning so much about people and places all of the time. People continue to introduce themselves to me and re-introduce themselves to me, which has been helpful. I wish everyone would wear name tags, but even still, slowly but surely I am getting names figured out, and relatives, and connections. It takes time to enter into a new family and learn everything.
I’m still learning lots about the churches and facilities, even my own house. I still have a lot to unpack, it’s taking a lot of time, a little each day. But it is like every day I notice new things, about the church, about my house, little things but it is just constant, constant learning, and it’s like my brain can only take so much.
I wonder if this was where the disciples in today’s Gospel were at? These were Jews that had been following Jesus as disciples, learning from Him each day, but I have to imagine it was like drinking from a fire hose too, just so much to take in every day.
Jesus knew that He only had a short amount of time with them, so He was trying to give them as much as possible, but today’s Gospel was a breaking point. This is the only time in the Gospels where the disciples left Jesus over His teaching, John 6:66, and notice, He didn’t do anything to call them back, He just let them go, He honored their free will.
Jesus just gave this difficult teaching on the Eucharist, how they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life, and yet He was content to let them go. My sense is that He knew they weren’t all ready for it, but He still had to teach them, and then pray that the ones who left would find their way back some day.
Let’s be honest, there is a lot to learn within the Catholic Church. A big Bible, thousands of years of history and Tradition, so many saints, it is truly like entering into a huge family when we are baptized and trying to figure everything out along the way, which is next to impossible, it’s truly like drinking from a firehose.
But I love Peter’s response to Jesus. After many disciples left and returned to their former way of life, “Jesus then said to the Twelve, "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."”
Do you hear that faith? That deep faith that doesn’t express total understanding, Peter just simply expresses faith in Jesus, He has seen too much to turn back now.
It is the same deep faith that is expressed in the first reading from Joshua when He gives the ultimatum, serve the Lord or serve the false gods of the world, stop straddling the issue. Either the Lord is here with us or He isn’t, make your choice. And the people responded by saying, we choose the Lord too, He brought us out of slavery, protected us on the journey, and worked many miracles along the way. We too have this choice every day.
See, this is the beautiful thing about the Catholic Church, I mean realistically there is entirely too much to learn, too much evidence, too much proof of how God has brought us too out of slavery from sin, protected us, and worked miracles, but yet, He gives us free will to make the choice. He doesn’t force us. If we want to see God’s presence, we can.
We can look at the Eucharistic Miracles from history that when scientifically tested show it is heart tissue, much like soon to be millennial Saint Carol Acutis did.
We can look at incorrupt saints like one of the most recent ones in Missouri, Sister Wilhelmina, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 95, and her body was discovered to be incorrupt four years later.
We can look at Apparitions of Mary, where she has visited people like Fatima & Lourdes.
We can look to recent saints with Spiritual Gifts like St. Padre Pio, stigmata, read souls.
There is so much supernatural evidence, we can choose to believe it, but we can choose to ignore it as well. And sometimes it isn’t even ignoring it so much as just not seeing it until we are ready. That is how I feel. When I learned about all of these miracles, I just couldn’t go back to the gods of the world, I got off the fence and went “all in” on this priest thing. And as I go along, I still keep learning more and more about Him, my faith keeps growing, even still today.
As we begin the school year, my encouragement is simple: keep learning. Whether you are 7 or 77, keep learning, God has more for you. He loves you, and He is patient with you, but only when you are ready, He will show you more evidence of His love, and evidence of His presence still in your life. God will strengthen your faith when you choose to keep learning about Him.