Whom shall I serve?
Today, in the First Reading we see that Joshua asked the Israelites to declare whom they would serve. They decided this based on their experience with the Lord who freed them from Egyptian slavery, performed wonders, and protected them during their forty-year exile in the desert.
We, too, need to experience God in some way if we are to serve him. Thus, we understand God’s promise to deliver us in light of Christ and our own resurrection.
The Responsorial Psalm outlines what the just man, that is, the one who chooses God, can expect. God often asks hard things of us: “Many are the troubles of the just one.” We are just if we choose the Lord and take truth and justice as our standards.
It is better to endure difficulties, even crushing ones, with the Lord, than to enjoy the fleeting happiness of the devil.
Those who are close to the Lord retain a peace and joy even while suffering.
Each person has to decide what his way of life will be. Thus, Jesus asks the disciples if they, too, will go away.
He had told them: “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail."
Flesh and spirit. The truth about the Eucharist that Our Lord reveals is not a natural truth (coming from the flesh) that unaided reason can discover (like honor your father and mother) but a supernatural truth. It can only be known if it is revealed by God (through the Spirit). In addition, we need the grace of Christ to assent to it.
In the case of the faithful apostles, this grace seems to come from their personal encounter with Jesus. They trusted Our Lord, so they could believe the words he spoke.
Pope Francis writes: “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day.”
This is what we need. We can encounter Christ in several ways, but most especially in the Eucharist.
Today, we will recite the Creed, at the end of which we will say “Amen.”
Then a little later, after the celebrant repeats Christ’s words which instituted the New Covenant, at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, we will say together the Great Amen. Even later, when we receive Holy Communion, we will respond with another “Amen.” These “amens” say to Christ “Yes, I believe, I trust in you, You will be faithful to your word."
Let’s let these amens and all the amens of this next week be renewals of our commitment to the New Covenant, to follow Christ closely, every day.
Our commitment must be to love God above all things, and to desire the true good of our neighbor.
Who is my neighbor? Charity begins at home and spreads outward. My neighbor is my spouse, parents, children, relatives, friends, neighbors, and anyone in need that I can serve.
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