Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We hear again in the psalm: taste and see the goodness of the Lord. We have heard this psalm for three Sundays in a row. It is a long psalm, but the antiphon has always been the same. Is the Lord trying to tell us something? We can experience this today in the Eucharist: how wonderful is the Lord with us. He is so good and does all things well. That is why this Eucharist is an exorcism; it raises us from the dead. Perhaps we come today thinking God has done everything wrong, my marriage is wrong, my finances, my health, my history, my parents are wrong, my children, everything is wrong; it is a mistake; my life is a disaster. Everything has been poorly done. Now this Eucharist tells you something completely different. It is a strong word: taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
He is so good that we are not even able to realize how good he is. We can hear the joy of the Lord coming from the psalmist. How good is the God we have, and we can see it in our lives and in the word today. The gospel may shock you because it is a challenging word, even the disciples were murmuring about it since Jesus said to gain eternal life; they had to eat his body and drink his blood. Who can accept this?
God speaks to us through his word but also in the events of our life, in our history, which may be difficult at this time. It may look awful to you. And you will not accept anything people say to you because you are arrogant. You think the other one is always wrong and you know better. No one can tell you anything because you are God, and you put yourself in his place. When the other tells you something that humbles you, do you accept it? Even when God tells us something, we resist.
Perhaps you are also shocked by the word of God today. Especially the word that will scandalize women or the feminists among us, yes or no? St. Paul says: “Wives be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church.” How is Christ the head of the Church? He is the head because he loves; he gives his life for her. Christian marriage will teach him how to love. Not to tyrannize, not to mistreat, not to despise or command her. This is very serious; the head is to love.
When your husband doesn’t love you, he ceases to be the head. It is not that you remove him as the head, or he quits, and then later one he comes back. He is the head if he loves. If he does not love, then he is not the head but the tail. He is called to love. His mission is to love. Brothers, be attentive in marriage; look out for the health of your spouse and respect her because it is your mission to be the loving head of the family.
How does Christ love the Church, how does he love you? He doesn’t throw stuff at you. Christ does not mistreat you or insult you. That is why I say, be attentive to your spouses, without insulting, show them the highest respect or you kill them physically or psychologically. Your wife is your own flesh. If there is physical abuse the Church allows the separation of the spouses, because life is more important than even the sacraments.
Submissiveness is a function of love. If a woman is not loved, she cannot submit. You cannot always tell her: do this or do that. And for her it doesn’t mean she always has to say yes. Submission will be revealed to you by the Holy Spirit who is in your heart. He will show you the way. Of course, it costs to be humble. However, this is your mission, to be humble and to allow your husband to be the head. Many are scandalized by this, as we see today the apostles are scandalized by what Jesus says to them and to the thousands of people.
It is necessary that you experience at some point in your life the scandal that happened to the apostles. They did not understand what Jesus was saying and its connection to the Eucharist. They did not understand how he came truly to be the Lamb of God, which meant he didn’t complain even when they treated him as a dog, as a criminal. It is necessary for each one of us to undergo something shocking or scandalous in our life of faith.
As we saw with Joshua in the first reading, when he addressed the people before they entered the Promised Land. He said, “Decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served … in the lands where you are dwelling. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The people responded that it was God who took them out of Egypt and out of slavery and performed many great miracles and protected them along the way. They will serve the Lord!
The choice is yours and it is necessary to make this decision. Once you have met the Lord and seen how he took you out of Egypt and seen his action in your life, in your history, you need to say: I am with the Lord! It will happen to you when your faith is weak. You will be scandalized by something, and a moment will come when you have to choose, like the disciples. The Lord leaves you free. You have seen his works and how he acts in your life, in your history, the mighty deeds he has done for you and your family, the cure he has made and those who he took out of death, you will see it is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is no avail.
Jesus says the words he has spoken are spirit and life. We will have this temptation every day. What do you choose: life or the flesh? This will be the fight of faith, and you will need to send the devil to hell. When you have a stronger faith, the fight becomes more serious, because this will cause your faith to grow and mature. It will be a beautiful moment. We need to be bold in sending the devil back to where he belongs. The flesh is not only sexual sins, but it represents all the temptations in front of us. Who do you want to serve? What is your response?