You and I must be the Reporters of Human Goodness and Freedom of Choice!
Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69
It is difficult to believe in the intrinsic goodness of the human person when the sole reference point is the media. There is a conspiracy of bad and fake news, news breaking that argues how evil the human person is, and how irredeemable humanity has become. All that is left of the human person is his ability to sin and commit crimes. The Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report nails it when it portrays the Roman Catholic Church as having nothing good in her except the perpetuation of evil, cover up and lies. Even individuals sunk deep in sin doubt about the possibility of standing up on their feet once more to proclaim the glory of God that each one of us is and is supposed to be. If you believe the media, we are all living in hell, and salvation is far gone and far fetched! But is this true?
Well, the decision to give up on humanity is an exercise in and of freedom, a God-given right and privilege that remains irrevocable. Decisions are made and arrived at on available information. The media is only one of the sources of information available, and by no means the only one! The vision of the human person, and the out come of his choice, is the source of his information and how he processes that information. An alternative vision of the human person, besides the media, is the word of God, Sacred Scripture, which speaks to us about our inherent goodness as human beings. In fact, by default, the human person is good! The goodness of the human person is grounded in God, and in God alone. The mirage of evil and crimes will only disappear, when we advance towards reality and truth – God himself – because it is to His image and likeness that we were created, and only attachment to him could radiate goodness in us.
The assembly at Schechem, in our first reading, is an attempt at retracing one’s steps, a decisive return to God through a fresh and renewed commitment to Him and His Commandments. “Forgetfulness” is part of the human nature, but memory remains the only panacea to forgetfulness, a repository of that which anchors the human person in its origins. Today, Joshua reorients the Jewish people to there roots; he reminds them of their original goodness, created and guaranteed by God. He assures them of the power of their choices, and how those choices create and mirror social events and the course of history. Yes, Joshua points the Israelites to an alternative path to living and acting – choosing God over against human ideologies; a choice based on past experiences of fidelity and justice of God. He reminds them of the power of freedom, freedom to choose God, and the consequences of being godless. Every choice comes at a price, yet the human person must continue to choose, because God has made it so.
The joy of freedom comes with the responsibility of accepting the consequences of one’s choices. To leave in the lands of the Amorites and being caught up in the cross-pollination of global ideas is not bad in itself, it only increases the power of freedom, and maximizes the potential for human choices. “Cross-roads,” like the one Israel faces in our first reading, only call for a reflective and informed choices to be made, choices for the betterment of social coherence and mobility. Conservatism and liberalism are doors towards dialectics of choice, there is a higher ground that the synthesis of both leads to, the presence of God and the goodness inherent in the human person. “If it does not please you to serve the Lord, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord,” says our first reading.
The gospel follows on the heels of the first reading with the question of individual responsibility: “Jesus then said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also want to leave?’” As individuals, we must make our choices and stick with them! Joshua did, and he encourages others to do the same. As a matter of fact, there is only one choice to be made – God! Peter, like Joshua, makes a fundamental option for God: “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’” (Jn 6:69). You know what? “Faith” is the search-light for and path towards human return to and anchor in God. It is by trusting in the goodness of God and counting on the blessings of the past that the path to a glorious future is charted. “We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” speaks of a journey of faith, a solo and lonely journey towards God. It can also be a collective journey: “For it was the Lord, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. . .Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”
The divides prevalent in our polity and politicking thrive on diversity and disunity, rather than the power of love to build bridges and show forth the inherent goodness in human beings. We are divided into lovers and haters of humanity, progressives and conservatives because love has no place in us. The conservative and progressive, straight and gay, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, male and female, old and young, citizens and immigrants all long for one thing – to be loved, valued, respected and appreciated. The collapse and the negation of the goodness in the human person creates the ideologies we worship as differences, and the prices we pay for disunity. God is love, all who live in love live in God. The choice to love is the choice for God and the first step in reclaiming the goodness in the human person.
Love overcomes all challenges! “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” from the opening sentence of our gospel reading challenges us to think about the sources of our allegiances! Stereotypes and profiling end up determining our truths and allegiances, and shaping the social ills that plague us. Only the courageous can make the choice for the goodness in the human person. The provision of an alternative narrative distracts from the “danger of a single story” (Chimamanda Adichie) – the stories of woes without instances of human heroic actions told as stories too. The difficulty in believing the goodness in the human person stems from the credibility we accord the sources of our information that the human being is all but evil. For instance, the sayings and proverbs that speak to us, we quote and cite ad nauseam. Whatever we love and cherish we defend and protect even with our last drop of blood. It is now time to stand up on the authority of Sacred Scripture to prove the veracity of the goodness in each one of us! Do that for yourself and prove this generation and media wrong!
Every Christian must have convincing reasons to remain with Jesus. “Do you also want to leave?” Jesus says to those who thought they wanted to stay. It is not enough to stay, the reasons for staying matter very much, because each day’s choices make us wonder whether we are on track or not, for each step taken counts. Over concentration on the flesh and its promises denies the spirit from maximizing its potentials: “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail,” says our gospel today. Get out of that prison of self-indulgence, and liberate yourself from the shackles of the flesh: your spirit, that is, the Spirit of God in you is more powerful than you can imagine. Just consider the many Saints who lived before you, and had to weather the storm of horrible persecutions, deprivation, torture and came out victorious. That spirit is still alive and active, and it dwells in you and me today.
Common, how hard is faith! Just open your eyes and see: was Jesus holding a piece of meat or a cup of blood in his hands when he said “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”? Every weekend in Nigeria there are men and women getting married and women giving birth in the hospitals and homes, yet we believe theories that contradict our senses! These are display of sacrifices expected of those who love like Christ loved us. As long as Christ is not the reference point of your actions, you are far from the path to life! Our second reading provides us with the guideline for Christian actions: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you: there are good people all around us, and not demons. Hospitals and senior homes still have volunteers despite the capitalistic crave for money. People still offer free meals and free coins to street beggars; ordinary Christians are still preaching and working in war torn countries, and Diocesan and missionary priests and religious sacrifice their lives daily to bring the gospel to those who have not heard it, and consolation and comfort to many. Indeed, journalists need their jobs but they cannot replace yours and mine – testifying to the goodness that we are and that we see around us!
Assignment for the Week:
Spend the whole week talking to friends and families about some good done by someone or tell the lives of the Saints and their accomplishments.