21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

21 ^st Sunday in Ordinary Time: Year B

Peace be with you and greetings on this our celebration of the Mass for the 21 ^st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Today we’ve just heard our final reading from the sixth Chapter of John’s Gospel, sometimes called Jesus’ “I am the Bread of Life” discourse. Several times in the last several weeks you’ve heard both Father and me emphasize the importance of this specific chapter for its’ very vivid description of Eucharist, as the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Additionally, often times in the past, you’ve heard me emphasize how important it is for all Catholics to be comfortable enough with the Bible to explain our own faith to our Protestant brothers and sisters in context of God’s written word. This “Bread of Life” discourse is certainly an excellent example of what I’m talking about.

So, today I’m going to do something very unusual for a homily in a Catholic Church during Mass. I’m going to use the commentaries from a KJV Study Bible to talk about Jesus’ “Bread of Life” discourse in John 6. First, when Jesus says he is the living bread come down from heaven and whoever eats this bread will live forever, this Study Bible says, “eat” is really a synonym for faith. And when Jesus’ listeners questioned how He could possibly give his flesh to eat the KJV Study Bible says those questioning were mistaken because Jesus was only speaking figuratively, and they incorrectly took him literally. And finally, in verses 53-58; when Jesus seems to really emphasize, “Eat My flesh and drink My blood:” These Biblical commentary notes say, Jesus had made it abundantly clear, in this context, eternal life is gained by believing. These verses teach that the benefits of Jesus’ death must be obtained, by individual faith.

Now certainly belief and faith are important aspects of Jesus’ message but is that really all he is talking about in his “Bread of Life” discourse? Why is there no mention in this Study Bible, when Jesus is asked to explain his confusing words about eating him as living bread come down from heaven, he actually becomes more descriptive or even crude with his language? He changes his vocabulary from the polite word “esthio” to describe human eating and suddenly uses a verb four times describing animals eating. “Trogo” is a verb really meaning, “chew or “gnaw”. So, should it surprise us at all in today’s Gospel, when we hear Jesus’ own disciples ask, “This saying is hard, who can accept it?” My friends, these are Jesus’ own disciples saying this! These are not Pharisees and Scribes questioning his shocking language. Here as Chapter 6 closes, John emphasizes who Jesus Christ really is and this revelation should make it absolutely clear why our Lord’s words should not be heard figuratively or interpreted as some type of simple metaphor for faith.

Jesus’ disciples were quite used to hearing him speak in agreeable metaphors to describe himself and his work here on earth; I am the vine, the Good Shepherd, the light of the world, the way, the truth, and the life. Never do we hear discord from his followers until today when they ask, “This saying is hard, who can accept it?” Gosh, do you think perhaps they were interpreting what he said literally? So, how does Jesus respond? Does he say something like, “Please don’t worry, this eating my body language just means have faith.” No, absolutely not!!! Jesus’ response is a question, which emphasizes his earlier words even more, “Does this shock you?” In their silence you can almost hear them thinking, “Yes it shocks us Lord. Please explain this eating your flesh and drinking your blood so we can understand what you really mean.” Now, for the rest of this interchange, John’s Gospel again stands out as unique, as John portrays Jesus as both human and divine, which is exactly why we can easily believe and accept his words literally.

Jesus says, “What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” My sisters and brothers, unlike human beings, God’s words are not descriptive. God’s words are creative. God imagines the universe, and then speaks it into existence. Right here in John 6, Jesus is reminding everyone listening there and then and everyone throughout eternity, he is the Word of God who dwelt among us. When Jesus speaks things happen; “Little girl get up, Lazarus come out, this is My Body, this is My Blood.” When Jesus told his disciples the words he spoke were both Spirit and Life he was outlining essential elements of what we Catholics call Sacramental. On that day in Capernaum Jesus explained exactly what the Sacrament of Eucharist really is.

Unfortunately, many of Jesus disciples still didn’t get it and then we have arguably some of the saddest words in the New Testament, “Many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” Interestingly, Catholic scholars have written volumes about that one single sentence from John 6. “Many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” Not some, or a few, or a group, but many! Amazingly the scholars who wrote this KJV Study Bible commentaries – were silent. In my own heart I think it is all really explained by Jesus’ next question and their response as he turns to the Twelve Apostles, “Do you also want to leave?” 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.” At that moment, it was doubtful, Peter and the other Apostles understood Jesus’ divinity as God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity, but they did know and recognized Him as fulfillment of the promise made to the people of Israel. They may have been confused but they had trust that Jesus’ words were truth – truth for their eternal salvation.

So, as we sit here today, given everything happening in our own present, sometimes tumultuous Catholic world, here’s our homework. Go home, sit quietly, and meditate on Jesus’ question to the twelve for just a few moments, “Do you also want to leave?” Then ask, “Do I truly stand with Jesus Christ of the Eucharist?”

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Paul T. Keil, 18-19 July 2026 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Season A Peace be with you and welcome to our celebration of the Mass for the 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time. OK, some of you may remember I’ve said before, in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapters 5, 6, and 7 comprise the whole Sermon on the Mount, but did you know Chapter 13, where we are today, is often called the Sermon of the Parables. In this single chapter Matthew strings together seven separate parables from Jesus. Today we just heard numbers two, three, and four. Last weekend we heard the first one with the Parable of the Sower and what happens to the seeds scattered in different places. Next weekend you’ll hear the final three parables from Chapter 13 so, be sure to come back. So, what is Jesus saying in these readings. Last week we heard the parable about seeds as an allegory for Jesus’s words falling on a path and being eaten by birds, falling on rocky ground and withering with no roots, falling into thorns and being choked by life’s anxieties, and falling on fertile soil to bear fruit. Today we have Jesus giving us another parable about planting seeds and again, just like last week, Jesus’ disciples ask him to explain the parable. And since He stops to explain both parables about planting, he just might be trying to emphasize something important here for his disciples, and for us. One thing is clear in these parables however, God’s Kingdom will always coexist in this physical world with forces opposing it, like the wheat and the weeds growing together. Now many religious people struggle with this condition. Some see it as predestination. A weed in the wheat field or a seed in the rocks must represent people predestined to go to hell. That’s what it literally says, right? Still others ask in frustration; this is God we’re talking about, why does God’s Kingdom have to struggle with opposing forces at all? Why doesn’t God just get rid of the evil? Well, our old friend, St Thomas Aquinas wrote quite a bit about good and evil coexisting in our fallen world. He said sometimes the two are so tightly interwoven that you couldn’t have certain types of good without certain types of evil. For example, he said simply, “there would be no virtue of the martyr without the cruelty of the tyrant.” Friends, God delights in our freedom, our intelligence, and our cooperation when we freely make the decision to accept God’s love. Without free will we cannot choose to love. Jesus’ explanation of the wheat and weed parable certainly helps when he says; “The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels” and in the next verse he says; “The Son of Man will send his angels.” There is a very important take-away here every single Christian should remember. Eternal judgment belongs to God alone, not to anyone else – period. This is a consistent message Jesus gives us in all four Gospels but unfortunately, there are those who sometimes forget this simple divine fact about humanity’s relationship with the unlimited creator of the universe. We may perceive an individual as being bad or even intrinsically evil but judgment for their immortal souls belongs exclusively to God. I always like an old adage that goes like this, “if I ever get to heaven, I may be surprised by who I see there, and they may be even more surprised to see me.” I’ll admit, over the years for a long time, as I’ve meditated on this parable about weeds and wheat or last week’s parable about seeds, especially the ones falling into thorns choked by worldly anxiety, there was something always bothering me. You see, if we’re not careful both parables can make life, heaven, and hell sound kind of random or worse yet, they can make God’s love sound like it is exclusively reserved for preselected people. I know now however, there is nothing further from the truth. If you’ve lived life for a while and think back to times when you were say maybe,,, struggling in school, or first dating, or trying to make ends meet while raising a family, or competing for promotions at work, or trying to buy that first house, you realize there may have been times when your life wasn’t very spiritually fruitful. In fact, I now realize there were times in my own past when thoughts of God, salvation, or prayer were nowhere in my daily routine. I even wonder; was there a period in my life when I was one of those weeds or a seed in the thorns? Thankfully, with reflection on the whole of Scripture, guidance from the Church, and maybe some help from the Holy Spirit I realize now these parables are not “either / or” propositions. God doesn’t intentionally create some people as weeds and some people as wheat nor does God throw souls into the wind to randomly fall in the thorns, or on stony ground, or in fertile soil. If you’re not careful, you can come to those conclusions, however. You can read the Bible too narrowly and pick out verses here and there that help support your personal image of what you want God to be. Those tend to be the same people who like to do God’s judgment work for him. Here’s the thing; some of us here today may have actually spent some time as those ugly weeds but at some point, with God’s help, we decided to change and now we’re wheat growing in that good old fertile soil. My sisters and brothers, sin must never be viewed as a permanent state. Like we heard from the Book of Wisdom today, “you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.” This is the greatest gift of our Christian faith; God loves us all so much, even great sinners, God is always ready to forgive. So, here’s a challenge and homework for us all today. Most of us know people out there from all age groups, but especially some of our youth, who may be temporarily living life like the weeds in our parable today or maybe tangled in those thorns of life’s tribulations. First and foremost, we must be confident, sin is not a permanent state of life, second, we don’t judge, third, pray for them no matter how nasty they may seem. And finally, if we’re really, really brave, we offer them a hand to pull them up and out of the weeds, rocks, or thorns into God’s fertile soil.