In this week's reflection, we will consider three topics from the Sunday readings. The first topic is taken from the second reading, the question of subordination. The long form of the reading says: "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything" (Ephesians 5:22-24). Needless to say, this passage has been controversial in the last few decades. Many would rather avoid discussing it, as if it were not even in the Bible. In fact, once I heard a priest say in his homily that the Apostle Paul did not write this passage, but that it was added later to reflect Roman social customs. On the flip side, some will interpret this passage as a sort of caveman caricature, giving license to men to be domineering tyrants over their wives.
What is often overlooked in the discussion is the context of the lines quoted. Right before the passage in question, we read: "Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ" (Ephesians 5:21). Right after speaking about wives being subordinate, the Apostle Paul then continues: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her" (Ephesians 5:25). Let us ponder for a moment what this statement means. How did Christ love the Church? He did so to the point of allowing himself to be crucified for her. In the Pauline vision, the central image of the ideal husband is that of Christ submitting even to crucifixion. So if we are going to talk about a wife being subordinate to her husband, we should also discuss the husband loving his wife even to the point of being willing to be crucified for her. That would give us a more complete picture.
The second topic of our reflection this week is the question of the flesh in the Gospel reading, in which Jesus states: "It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail." What does Jesus mean here? Is he condemning the physical body and the material world, while saying that only the spiritual realm is good? Such was the teaching of some groups, especially the Gnostics, who had many adherents in the ancient world. Once again, to understand the words of Christ, we must consider the context of the passage. Early in the Gospel of John, we see that "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14), that is to say, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity became incarnate in a human body. Later in the Gospel, Jesus blesses the institution of marriage by performing his first public miracle at a wedding, when he turns an abundance of water into wine. He then multiplies the loaves and fishes, providing an abundance of food.
Clearly, Jesus did not reject the material world, but saw it as good. What is more, in the Bread of Life discourse, which the Church has been reflecting on for four weeks, Jesus tells us that we are to eat his flesh and drink his blood, which we do by receiving Communion at Mass. Jesus used the word "flesh" with different meanings in different passages. On the one hand, "flesh" does mean the body. On the other hand, flesh can also mean all of those things that would separate us from God, whether physical or spiritual. Likewise, the "spirit" can mean the human soul, but it can also mean anything that takes us closer to God, whether spiritual or physical. The physical in and of itself is not negative. As we see in the sacramental life of the Church, the physical (water, oil, bread, wine) can become a means for us to receive God's grace. The problem happens when we do not recognize the physical world as God's creation and we begin to worship the created world rather than the Creator.
The third topic is the choice we must make in response to the words of Jesus. Jesus calls us to a radically different way of being from how we lived our lives before. We see that in the Gospels people either give up everything to follow Christ or they turn away from Christ completely. No one follows Christ half-heartedly in the Scriptures. However, in our current era, many Christians have tried to water down the words of Jesus to the point of making them little more than a feel-good message that lets us do whatever we want to do, rather than what God calls us to do. We must not fall into such a trap. We must respond to the challenge of the words of Jesus by examining everything in our lives and uprooting anything that is contrary to him. No matter how important or desired or precious something feels to us, if it conflicts with our love of Christ, we must let it go, so that we may say with Peter: "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" (John 6:67-69).
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The readings for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B are:
Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21
Eph 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32
Jn 6:60-69
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Dumfries House, Marquess of Bute Memorial, crucifixion detail, 1900, East Ayrshire from Wikipedia Commons.
