The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

In 1972, prior to the Republican and Democratic conventions, a small group of men were arrested for breaking into the Watergate hotel at National Democratic headquarters. Two reports from the Washington Post pursued this story until they uncovered that President Nixon knew of a number of political tricks and engineered the cover up that followed. This political scandal ultimately led to his resigning his office in 1974.  Scandals in political life are not new, and they continue in other dimensions of life as well. Scandals are those things that shock, disillusion and alienate people. They expected something much different !

The gospel of John states : " Many of the disciples of Jesus remarked, "This sort of talk is hard to endure." Previously, it was Jesus' opponents who were scandalized by his teaching about being the "bread of life". Now it is his own followers who find Jesus too challenging, too demanding. Like the Israelites in the desert during the Exodus experience, and Jesus' opponents some of his followers begin to "murmur" against him--that is , they defect ! They simply find it too hard to serve with Jesus any longer. He doesn't fit their expectations, they are disillusioned, and some leave him.

There comes a time in our faith lives when the radical demand of being Jesus' disciple shatters our illusions and comfort. That moment, or series of moments will call upon us to make a decision as to who we will serve. Will we serve the Lord, or some other idol or loyalty that does not give life, and that may even take life ? No disciple of Jesus is shielded from this choice. In point of fact, it is an essential aspect and requirement of discipleship. In essence, can we accept the "scandal" of Jesus and the radical commitment he summons us to as his followers?

Being nourished on the 'bread of life". on Jesus himself, God's embodied Wisdom of unconditional love, entails a covenant relationship. It is a relationship of submissiveness or surrender to our need for God. It is a recognition that without the life-giving presence of the Lord in one's life we reject out true being and our future. God's wisdom in Jesus is what brings us to who we are--but this entails taking the nourishment of the bread of life--opening ourselves to allow Jesus to be present to us. This happens in the acceptance of the scandal of discipleship--that is living as a self-gift to God and others. In such a life we mediate to others and the world the life-giving Spirit of wisdom of Jesus himself.

The letter to the Ephesians illustrates the nature of this relationship with the Lord using the model of the covenant of marriage. Today the wording of this letter may not be appreciated by many. However, it is important to see this letter in its context. Women at that time were considered the property of the husband . They were utterly dependent on the fiat of their husbands. But Ephesians says, oh no !, if you be in the Lord you must treat each other as equals in dignity--as one body in love. To be a disciple of Jesus is to cling to Him as a husband to a wife and life Israel to Yahweh.

This 'clinging" to the Lord as a disciple is the response of those who want to return something to the Lord for the gift of God's unmerited love in Jesus. It is a love that desires to be in covenant with human beings. It is a covenant that was cut on the cross for us.

To accept the call to follow, to be a disciple is to cling to Christ despite the scandal. It is being at home in a lifestyle of being Christ's nourishing presence and promise to others and the world. This happens when disciples work to create conditions whereby the Temple of God, human beings are honored and nourished. Not just those we wish to honor, but a commitment to all human beings! It is a life that resists and overturns the beliefs that war, hatred, violence and pettiness are iron laws of human history. In others words, it is our belief in Jesus that shows itself embodied in action--action that risks a scandal.

In the book, Disturbers of the Peace: the way of Disciples, by Eamonn Bredin writes:" This question about Jesus becomes more acute when we remember that many of those who come in contact with the historical Jesus seem to have consistently misunderstood him or rejected him.... If we heap titles on him, pray to him, use all the correct formulae about him, we may simply be keeping him and the scandal of him at a distance. Yet he desires to work from within our lives. He seeks to lay claim to our hearts, to eternally disturb us, to whisper to us about perfection. He asks us to believe that he is still passionately involved in our lives, that he is still healing us, making us whole by troubling us and challenging us to be different."  Like Peter and the other apostles, in clinging to Christ, we respond to the Lord's question, "do you want to leave me too?, with Where can we go Lord? Whom shall we serve? You have the words of eternal life!"

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000