Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B

Reflecting on John 6: 24-35

It sounded simple when Jesus said it. You want to take part in the work of God? Believe in me.

But today, in our postmodern, post religious world, belief in Jesus is some of the hardest work there is.

Our generation doesn’t think we need to sit in church every Sunday to be good people.

I think I can speak for any of the over-fifty crowd who still fill the pews in any parish when I say that not one of us is here because we think “sitting in church” makes us a good person.

We are here because we want to participate in God’s work in the world, and belief in Jesus gives us the comfort and inspiration to reach outside ourselves, and to know his presence.

Exposure to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to those who share our desire to hear it and live it, does us good and not harm every day of our lives.

Here is the example that touches me to my core. In the thirty years that I’ve known my husband Ben, he has accompanied me through a tedious list of serious illnesses, accidents, and surgeries. We long since passed the mark where I could possibly take the same care of him in our life together as he has taken of me.

If Ben were comfortable to be “postmodern,” I think he might have noticed long ago that it might be much easier to travel through life with a more mobile spouse.

But he is joyful to be a servant.  Inspired by Christ and his scriptures, Ben loves his wife. I never want to live in a world that is too sophisticated for that.

In what ways does your belief in Jesus affect your behavior and your happiness?

Ordinary Time - Cycle B