Expect some division among followers

August 27, 2006 -- 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr. Michael Stubbs

	Fr. Mike Stubbs

The television industry has fine-tuned the art of gauging audience reaction in order to determine the effectiveness of its programming. The bottom line is, will the commercials sell?

We also might be concerned with audience reaction as we examine Sunday's gospel reading, but for different reasons.

For the past few Sundays, the gospel readings have been relating Jesus' discourse on the "bread of life" (John 6:25-59). This Sunday's gospel reading gives us the listeners' reaction to that discourse. Not only do his words stir up that part of the crowd listening to Jesus for the first time, but they also divide the longtime followers of Jesus.

Many of Jesus' disciples cannot accept his words about himself as the "bread of life." "This sort of talk is hard to endure! How can anyone take it seriously?"

Even though this division takes place during Jesus' lifetime, it parallels a similar division that took place years later when John's gospel was being written. The gospel writer wanted to help his fellow Christians to reflect upon the schism occurring in their midst.

Some background on that later split is in order. In the first two centuries of Christianity there was a group of Jewish Christians who adhered to certain beliefs outside the mainstream. They honored Jesus as a teacher, but denied his divinity.

They celebrated the Eucharist only once a year, at Easter, with bread and water, as a commemoration of Jesus' death, but denied that it was the body of Jesus, "the bread of life." We know about this unorthodox group through the writings of other early Christians, such as St. Ignatius of Antioch.

St. Ignatius, who died in 107, wrote at approximately the same time that John's gospel was written. In his writings, he attacks these Jewish Christians for their beliefs concerning the Eucharist and the nature of Christ.

His criticisms enunciate the rift between them and the majority of Christians. As far as St. Ignatius could see, these dissidents were no longer truly following Christ, any more than the dissident disciples mentioned in Sunday's gospel reading. "Many of his disciples broke away and would not remain in his company any longer."

What can we conclude from this?

First, we can expect divisions to take place among followers of Christ. Some will dissent from the truth and leave. What we see in the gospel reading also happened in the early Church and has happened throughout history.

At the same time, the fact that we can expect some divisions to occur does not imply that we should encourage them. In John's gospel, Jesus prays for unity among his disciples, "that they may be one, as we are one." (John 17:22)

Above all, the fact that we can expect some divisions to occur does not mean that we should push away those already on the fringes of the Church. Notice that in the gospel reading the dissident disciples leave on their own accord. They are not booted out by the disciples who remain faithful. On the contrary, Simon Peter and the rest of the Twelve focus their attention upon Jesus Christ and his message.

In speaking for them, Simon Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." That also should be our focus.

(Fr. Stubbs, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, has a master's degree in theology from Harvard.)