Discussion Questions

First Reading

Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b

F1. Both the First Reading and the Gospel are concerned with choice. Are the messes in which we find ourselves usually the result of wrong choices? If God created us to automatically do the right thing all the time, like robots, what could we not do? Would we ever be able to choose to love God? Why do you think God gave us free will?

F2. Do you have more invested in a choice you made, or in a choice someone else made for you? What are the implications for your family, church, job, and community?

Second Reading

Ephesians 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32

S1. Compare and contrast the bride with a difficult childbirth and the church with the birth of new ideas. An example of the latter would be some of the family problems addressed in the meetings of the Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

S2. Paul compares husband and wife with Christ and the Church. What is his point?

Gospel

John 6:60-69

G1. Jesus asks, “Do you also want to leave?” If you were there at the time would you be one of the many disciples who returned to his/her former way of life or one that stayed with Jesus? Is there any middle ground here?

G2. “As a result of this many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” What does Pope Francis say was the obstacle or the reason some people left Jesus?

Jesus’ words enkindled great scandal: he was saying that God decided to manifest himself and accomplish salvation in the weakness of human flesh. It is the mystery of the incarnation. The incarnation of God is what provoked scandal and presented an obstacle for those people—but often for us too. Indeed, Jesus affirms that the true bread of salvation, which transmits eternal life, is his very flesh; that to enter into communion with God, before observing the laws or satisfying religious precepts, it is necessary to live out a real and concrete relationship with him. Because salvation came from him, in his incarnation.

This means that one must not pursue God in dreams and in images of grandeur and power, but must recognize him in the humanity of Jesus and, as a consequence, in that of the brothers and sisters we meet on the path of life. God made himself flesh.

… God made himself flesh and blood; he lowered himself to the point of becoming a man like us. He humbled himself to the extent of burdening himself with our sufferings and sin, and therefore he asks us to seek him not outside of life and history, but in relationship with Christ and with our brothers and sisters. Seeking him in life, in history, in our daily life. And this, brothers and sisters, is the road to the encounter with God: the relationship with Christ and our brothers and sisters.

Angelus for the 21st Sun Ord BAug 22, 2021

Anne Osdieck

**From Saint Louis University