One of the most challenging and important aspects of our lives is commitment. Commitment involves a choice that locks us into a pattern of conduct that determines all or a significant part of our life. To commit ourselves is to put other things behind us in order that we might be faithful, faithful to God and to another. That is not always easy but it transforms our lives. It is only commitment that opens us to achieving goals and reaping awards that would never be ours otherwise and it is commitment that is at the heart of God’s Word to us today. One of the characteristics of our culture today is that many people are unwilling to make a commitment. Pope Francis has described most cultures today as characterized as individualism and a “throw away” attitude. These don’t fit well with commitment. So, many people don’t want to tie themselves down in the fear that things may not work out. Many are afraid to take a marriage vow; others regret having made it and retract it; some young people are reluctant to accept anything that is traditional or that restricts their freedom, Saddest of all, many are reluctant to make the kind of commitment that Jesus asks of us when he calls us to be his disciples.
In today’s Scripture readings, people are tired, exhausted, depressed, full of complaints. Does this sound like God’s chosen people? They need to sing the beautiful hymn to the God of all hopefulness, the God of all joy. We too long to be “touched” by the mystery of God’s love, to be taught by God. The truth of our lives is God longs to touch with his amazing grace. When we trust in God and God’s care for us, we can leave behind the broom trees of our despair and live in hope. Hope in God, hope in the bread of life, hope in the One who prepares a weekly feast and is revealed anew in bread and wine. The people listening to Jesus in the Gospel began to complain because he claimed to be the bread that came down from heaven. People murmured when Jesus declares that He Himself is our bread for the journey. This murmur echoes the reaction of some to the real presence of Jesus in the mystery of the Eucharist, the mystery of God’s self-sacrificing love revealed in Jesus, and this mystery that enables diverse people near and far to live as brothers and sisters in one human family, children of one heavenly Father. If the Eucharist is only a Sunday morning thing, if there is anger and hatred in our hearts toward others, if our attention is only mixed at best, if we are hassled about many things, we have not opened our hearts to the transforming love of God revealed in the Eucharistic mystery. Compassionate love and forgiveness are to mark our family life, our parish life, our life as a Church. Perhaps our political discourse and our presidential debates could be more characterized by a spirit of love and compassion for one and all. The only way for us as disciples to be imitators of God is to center our lives in the cross of Jesus. May the cross of Jesus be at the center of our hearts as well. As we now celebrate the mystery of the Eucharist, the bread that is my flesh for the life of the world, may we be immersed in the great mystery of God’s unending love for us.