Christ between the Virgin and St. John the Baptist (detail)
Jan Gossaert, c. 1515

Readings
Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18
Psalm 34:2-3, 16-23
Ephesians 5:21-32
John 6:60-69

Chants

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.

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St. Padre Pio de Pietrelcina
from Epistle 3, 980

Be patient and persevere in the practice of meditation. Be content, to start with, to make progress only by degrees. Later on you will have legs that will ask for nothing but to run or, better, wings for flying with.

Be happy to obey. It's never easy but it is God we have chosen as our portion. Accept that, as yet, you are only a little bee in its nest but, very quickly, it will become one of those wonderful workers so skilful in making honey. Always remain humble before God and men, in love. Then our Lord will speak to you in truth and enrich you with his gifts.

It can happen that bees will cover great distances over the meadows before they find the flowers they want. Afterwards, worn out but satisfied and laden with pollen, they go back to the hive to carry out the silent but fruitful transformation of the flowers' nectar into the nectar of life. You, do likewise: when you have listened to the Word, meditate on it attentively, study its different aspects, seek out the depths of its meaning. Then it will become clear and luminous to you; it will have power to transform your natural inclinations into a pure uplifting of the spirit, and your heart will be always more closely united to the heart of Christ.