Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b; Eph 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32; Jn 6:60-69

GROW: “If it does not please you to serve the Lord, decide today whom you will serve.” Not much nuance or wiggle room in that phrase, is there? This is what Joshua said to the people in today’s first reading, when he gathered together all the tribes of Israel. Although these were God’s chosen people, they still had to make a conscious choice – a decision to live with God and be obedient to him, or not. Jesus’ followers and disciples faced the same test of resolve in today’s Gospel, as he had just revealed himself as the bread of life. Some left and some stayed. We, too, must decide, today and every day. Too busy or distracted to attend to God? Then what? Do we have a plan? In this busy world, there is always something calling out for our attention. But there is nothing more important for our happiness in this life and the next than to stay focused on a life of service to Christ and his Church. For, as Peter says, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” The Twelve have made the choice as to whom they will serve: they will serve the Lord.

Prov 9:1-6; Eph 5:15-20; John 6:51-58

GROW: We tell our children, from a young age through their teen years: make wise choices. It’s a sort of catch-all to cover the endless possibilities of circumstances – good, bad, or neutral – they might find themselves in. But what does it mean to be wise? To have wisdom? In today’s first reading from Proverbs, we are shown a depiction of wisdom herself, spreading a table where the guests will dine when they arrive. “Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed!” she says. This invitation is echoed in the Gospel, by Wisdom personified: Jesus Christ. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” Simplicity of heart and the forsaking of foolishness are the only criteria for accepting the offering of wisdom. It seems we are to come and be fed. But how do we discern, in our fast-paced, consumer-based world, what exactly is a wise choice? It’s hard to advance in true wisdom; it is acquired by the humble and the simple, not the busy and the overcomplicated. Often, what the Christian deems important the world finds “foolish.” It can be hard to keep our priorities rightly ordered, but advancing on the path to wisdom begins first by recognizing the centrality of God in our lives and humbly allowing him in.

1 Kgs 19:4-8; Eph 4:30-5:2; Jn 6:41-51

GROW: In the first reading, we encounter the prophet Elijah as he is fleeing for his life from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. He accomplishes a day’s journey, then sits under a tree and prays for death. This is a tough scene! He is at the lowest point a human being can be. Yet in this darkest moment of despair, the light of faith flickers: Elijah cries out to God. He cries out for what he thinks he wants, and God provides him with what he needs, sending an angel (a messenger) to him with food and water for nourishment and strength. Thus fortified, Elijah continues his journey to Horeb. God took care of his tired, hungry, and despairing child. And over time, and through generations, his people continued to cry out to him, and in abounding love, God took care. Yet they remained separated from him. So he sent them, and the whole world, another messenger to bring food and drink for nourishment and strength: his Son. Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.” With even just a flicker of faith at our lowest point, or in the best of times, we call upon the Lord and can receive the perfect nourishment of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. Through God’s merciful love, he is food for this life and the next.

Ex 16:2-4, 12-15; Eph 4:17, 20-24; Jn 6:24-25

GROW: When have you grumbled against God instead of consenting, trusting, and believing he would see you through to a brighter future? In this first reading from Exodus, the whole Israelite community laments over their wanderings in the desert; their earthly focus on hunger and thirst leads them to believe slavery in Egypt would have been better than God’s freedom for them. When we are struggling for whatever reason, it’s easy to forget all that God has done for us in the past and all he desires to do for us in the future. We may not even recognize the very life-giving and life-sustaining “bread” that lays before us, much as the Israelites did not recognize the bread that lay before them in the desert. In spite of our hard-heartedness at times, however, God is truly patient; he loves us beyond measure. Just as he did not condemn the Israelites, he does not condemn us but rather, calls us back to him time and again with love and mercy.

GROW: If the multiplication of the loaves sounds oh so familiar … it’s because it is! It’s the only miracle story found in all four Gospels, and for good reason. Jesus multiplies the meager offering of a boy with five barley loaves and two fish and feeds a large crowd with baskets left over. The story is symbolic of the food that is readily available through Jesus in the Eucharist. The crowd in the Gospel that had been following Jesus was tired, worn out, and hungry. Don’t we all feel discouraged now and then? When we do, Jesus makes himself available to us in the Eucharist; he provides daily food that nourishes and sustains. When we eat this life-giving bread, we are strengthened and fortified, as was the crowd in the Gospel, as we heard: “They had more than they could eat.”

GROW: What words do we associate with being misled? Deceived, fooled, cheated? While these actions make great plot points in novels and movies, in real life they are offenses against justice, charity, and truth. In both the first reading and the Gospel today, we hear that God’s people are being misled (“Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture”) and/or left to their own devices (“for they were like sheep without a shepherd”). In the time of Jeremiah the kings of Judah, who were shepherding in God’s name, were not tending their flock: They had “scattered [his] sheep and driven them away.” Jeremiah prophesies that the Lord will gather the remnant of his flock and bring them back to their meadow; in short, the Lord offers hope. He would raise up from the house of David a true shepherd to guide and guard his people. The incarnation of Jesus is the manifestation of that hope, and in him we have a guiding light to lead us along the correct path. He will never deceive, fool, or cheat. In this world filled with unrest and division, he offers something that no mortal man or woman can: He is the one who saves and redeems. He is the one true shepherd.

GROW: Have you ever considered the task before you and thought, No way am I equipped for this?  There are certainly times when it seems God is calling us to more than we are prepared for. The prophet Amos never expected to be God’s mouthpiece. He was a simple shepherd and a “dresser of sycamores.” Yet, Amos listened when God chose him “from following the flock” and instructed him to speak to Israel, even if he may have thought the whole idea quite silly. “Do you really mean me?” we might imagine him saying. We see this theme of God calling those we might least expect to important missions on countless occasions throughout Scripture: Moses had a speech impediment; Rahab was a prostitute; David was a young boy; Ruth was a foreigner; Matthew was a despised tax collector; Paul persecuted the early Christians; and the list goes on. On every occasion, however, trusting in God and listening to his voice was enough for each of these individuals to fulfill the role they were called to, even if they considered themselves the most unlikely candidate for the cause.

GROW: The prophets of the Old Testament didn’t exactly have it easy, and Ezekiel is no exception. The Lord tells him that he’s being sent to the Israelites, calling them “rebels who have rebelled against me,” who were “hard of face and obstinate of heart.” In other words, God basically tells him that they will be a tough audience. Can you imagine how Ezekiel felt? Here, he is being dispatched to a people who will likely not welcome him in order to say things that probably no one will want to hear And yet his work is crucial. God is sending his people a messenger, telling them he stills loves them and wants them to be his people. It should come as no surprise that we are called to do the same! Although we may not describe the people in our lives as obstinate or “a rebellious house,” we know it’s not always easy to share God’s message. It matters that we do, though. We may not always know exactly what effects our words and actions have, but everything the Lord asks us to do has a purpose.

GROW: “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” The assuredness with which the woman in today’s Gospel, afflicted with hemorrhages, speaks, is something I aspire to. She is at her wit’s end, with nothing to lose and everything to gain, and she simply determines what she will do, bolstered by her faith in Jesus Christ.  Notice how she doesn’t approach Jesus directly, engage in conversation, or even ask anything of him. And Jesus, for his part, doesn’t actively seek her out or call her to him. But the woman knows. “She had heard about Jesus,” and she just knows that by simply touching his clothing, not even touching his human flesh, that the power he has within him will cure her. Her actions reflect the virtues of fortitude and hope, but it is her faith that has allowed her to see and understand the divine nature of Jesus – to see the God of healing standing before her. And she is not afraid. She trusts in his promises and compassion, and gives herself over to him with full vulnerability, achieving healing and being granted peace in response. If only we could do the same every time we are at our wit’s end … or maybe even long before we get there.

GROW: St. Boniface, an English Benedictine monk who died in the 8th century, wrote in a letter: “In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course.” Oceans and seas, lakes and rivers, baptism. The role of water in daily life and its use as a metaphor are woven throughout our Scriptures. In today’s readings, we hear two references to the sea. First, we have God talking to Job out of a storm, reminding the prophet that he – the Lord – is the one who created the seas and keeps them firmly in their place. The Gospel passage provides us with a stark reminder of that truth. As the disciples and Jesus cross the sea, a storm crops up and threatens to sink their boat. But one command from Jesus and the water is still. St. Boniface had it right. We really all are on that ship with Jesus on its voyage across the ocean of this world, and trusting in him to keep us on course and safe from harm ensures we reach the destinations he intends for us.

GROW: If we walk through the woods on a beautiful spring day, we’ll see the signs of life bursting forward. Green shoots coming up from the ground, leaf buds poking out from the branches of a tree – even the birds and animals are busily scampering. Life, growth, and new beginnings are all around. Today’s readings have a common theme of nature as one of the ways we can experience God’s design. Like the crowds Jesus taught, we may not know the exact cause of what makes a plant grow from a tiny seed to a towering tree, but that’s OK – we don’t have to know. As St. Paul writes, “we walk by faith, not by sight.” We trust the Lord to lead and guide us. And, like the harvester in the parable, we can observe, tend, and act when the time is right to bring in the harvest, for, as Paul continues in his letter: “We aspire to please [God].”

GROW: I know people who read the ending of a book before they are finished with it. I could never do that! I have to follow the story in every detail until the final page. When it comes to the story of our salvation history, however, we get to do a little of both: we know the end of the story in terms of Revelation and God’s desire for us to live with him in eternity. We know of the heavenly kingdom to which we have been invited and in which we live. What we don’t know is all the details that get us to our own, individual, final page in the great drama of our response to the gift of salvation. In the first reading today, we hear the story of the fall of humankind – about how our earliest parents rejected God’s command and gave into temptation. However, the story doesn’t end there. Adam and Eve may have been sent out of the Garden of Eden, but God didn’t give up on them – or us. Instead, he sent a long line of prophets who paved the way for his Son, Jesus. With Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, the gates of heaven were opened so all have the opportunity to accept the gift of salvation. As St. Paul writes in his Letter to the Corinthians, we can know “that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus.”