Being the oldest of many children provided me with the opportunity, the responsibility, or the burden, depending on the way you looked at it, to do a lot of baby-sitting. When my parents took a rare night off or when mom had to run to the store in the middle of the day or take someone to the doctor, these were all times that I would be drafted to hold down the fort and make sure everyone did what they were supposed to until one or both of the parental units returned to resume control. Now, I’m not going to lie to you and pretend that I was always a benevolent sitter. I, like many oldest siblings, would sometimes resort to threats, heavy-handed methods, and scorched-earth policies in the hopes of maintaining order. Sometimes this came from a place of laziness and not caring to take the time to work with my younger brothers and sisters. Other times, it was in the interest of self-preservation. A horde of younger siblings can sense weakness of resolve and self-doubt like a shark senses blood in the water. If you don’t immediately maintain order and control, they can gang up on you and turn the house into a modern-day French revolution. If that happens, the parents might return to nothing more than your bleached bones and full anarchy.
But I am getting sidetracked! Even though I was not the perfect babysitter, I tried to be fair and reasonable and not abuse the authority my parents entrusted to me while they were gone. As a young person, that was my first real practice of authority. And I noticed something in my younger siblings that I myself had experienced many times before and many times since; we humans struggle with authority! I think we all know this to be true. I can’t count how many times I would tell a sibling to do some task before mom and dad got home but was told: “you’re not the boss of me! Have you ever noticed how quickly a young child learns how to say the word “no”? And it’s not just children either. How many of us like to be told what to or look forward to when someone tells us no? The fact is, ever since Adam and Eve, we haven’t been so good at obedience. Sin has placed a resistance within us to authority, even when that authority us legitimate and might even protect our own best interests. We all want to be our own master in some way, shape, or form. But no matter how strong or successful or powerful or independent we are, we all must serve someone, something.
The readings today challenge that basic human desire for autonomy and force us to think about who or what it is that we serve. In the first reading, Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel and recounts the saving work of the Lord throughout their history. It wasn’t always clear how the Lord would save his people, it certainly wasn’t always easy or popular or without sacrifice. But in the end, those who served the God of Moses and Abraham were vindicated and rewarded. Joshua called on the people to make their decision once again and to make it freely and deliberately. He didn’t ask them whether or not they wanted to serve a god, no, the question is what god they will decide to serve. Joshua’s statement of faith and obedience is beautiful, so beautiful in fact, that I have seen it displayed in the homes of many families. He says, “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Encouraged by his humility and example, the people of Israel promised to serve the Lord as well and turn their back on the lesser gods that their ancestors worshipped and obeyed.
This theme of obedience and service is also at work in our second reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians. Most priests avoid this reading like the plague because the phrase, “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord” always stirs up angry looks and jabs to the ribs among married couples. But this reading never was meant to inflame the age-old power struggle between men and women, husbands and wives. This reading is meant to change the argument completely from who has the power, who is charge to whom will you serve? St. Paul tells the Ephesians, and us as well, that marriage is meant to a sign of of the relationship that exists between Christ and his bride, the Church. Just as Jesus came, not to be served but to serve. Just as Jesus told God the Father during his agony in the Garden that he wanted “not his own will but his Father's to be done.” So too with married couples. You are supposed to enter into marriage in order to serve your spouse...and not the other way around. Both husband and wife are called to lay down your lives, your wills, even personal ambition in order to promote the good and holiness of your spouse. It is never about who is right, who has the power, or who has the final say. This is a very lofty view of married life but it is the Christian view of marriage and it is something you entered freely when the two of you become one in holy matrimony.
Finally, we have the gospel. Jesus has just finished his teaching on the Bread of Life, which is his own Body and Blood. It is a difficult teaching, so difficult and challenging, that many of Christ’s followers leave him that day and never return. They were willing to follow him until that point but then it became too much, too difficult. Notice what Jesus does, or rather, what he doesn’t do! Jesus does not go back to the huge group that is leaving him and say, “sorry guys for what I said, I didn’t really mean it!” He doesn’t try and water down his teaching or make it easier to stomach. He simply turns to the apostles and says, "Do you also want to leave?" St. Peter speaks on behalf of all twelve when he wisely answers, "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." Even though it is difficult, the apostles decided to serve Christ and obey his teaching, Even though many others walked away, they stayed and served and God took care of them.
We for our part, need ask ourselves: who it is that we serve. Is it the Lord? Even when his teachings are difficult? Even when we don’t quite understand? Even when they are unpopular? Or seen as silly in the eyes of the world? Or judged by the “wise” of the world to be irrelevant? Do we serve the Lord AND see obedience to the Catholic Church as part of serving him?
Or do we serve ourselves? Our own egos, our own ambitions, our own comfort zones, our own laziness, our own selfishness? Do we serve God or do we serve the opinions of others, the current thought of society, the wisdom of this world, or the acceptance of fellow human beings?
We all must serve someone or something. Ask yourself today, who that will be. I hope you will decide wisely like Joshua and the Apostles, “that as for you and your household, you will serve the LORD.”
