And not the apologetics of explaining your faith, but the apologizing away the faith. That is what the reading of Ephesians 5 often evokes from homilists. Domeico experienced it, as I am sure did many others.
Our priest did a good job with only a minor qualification of Paul being affected by the age he lived in. But the focus was on the challenge in all three readings. In Joshua, it was a line in the not-so-proverbial sand. Whom will you serve?
In Ephesians, it was the challenge of being submissive to one another. To love as Christ loved. (on a side note, I mentioned to Father after Mass that no one ever notices that the husband has the tougher call. The call to love as Christ loved the Church and died for His spouse. See e5men for more info.)
In the Gospel, the disciples found Christ's teach unacceptable. As Father said, it wasn't that it was hard to understand, they understood but couldn't accept it. And Jesus asked his Apostle's, will you too go away? And I love Father's remark here.
Jesus is telling us, my teachings are hard. But either you accept them or leave. It reminds me of the teachings of the Church. Often they are hard. Many find them unacceptable, but He turns to us and asks us, "will you too go away?" May we always say yes to the hard teachings.
But it also reminds me of the crucial difference between dissent and sin. And I credit my friend Eric for this thought, we all fall. We all struggle to keep the hard sayings. But the difference is that the sinner calls his failure sin. The dissenters reassure themselves it is okay and look to change the rule rather than himself.
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