B: 20th Sun of OrdTime (19 Aug 2018) - A FEW GOOD MEN - Jn 6:51-58

A story is told about a philanthrophist who was sentenced into life imprisonment. While in jail, he has continued to display his generosity. At one point, a city hospital needed a left arm for an injured soldier. He readily volunteered to give his left arm. The next time, the right was needed, and he did the same. When a left leg was lacking, he offered his leg as well. Finally, a right leg was asked, still, he was very willing to donate his as always. However, the jail warden denied him this time, saying: “No, no, you cannot do that anymore. We are now beginning to suspect that you are slowly escaping from prison piece by piece.”

This is of course only a fictitious jovial story. However, we can still relate it to what Jesus experienced in our gospel readings for four Sundays already. At first, Jesus provided the crowd with food to eat by multiplying the 5 loaves and 2 fishes for the 5,000 men (cf. Jn 6:1-13). The crowd was momentarily astounded, proclaiming Jesus as “the Prophet, the one who is coming into the world (v. 14).” For fear that they would rally for him as king, Jesus fled away (v. 15). But the crowd sought him, following him to the other side of the sea (vv. 24-25). There, eager to witness Jesus’ divine nature, they asked him to perform more signs (v. 30). In response, Jesus encouraged them to have confidence that his Father would provide them the true bread from heaven as he did during Moses’ time (v. 32). The crowd continued to display faith in Jesus’ words, imploring him to give them this bread always (v. 34). The crux now entered: Jesus offered and introduced himself as the “Bread of Life” promising that those who come to him would never hunger nor thirst (v. 35). This proclamation suddenly changed the tide among the crowd as some began to doubt his heavenly origin (“This man is the son of Joseph, isn’t he?” in v. 42) and his words for claiming the unimaginable and impossible (“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” in v. 52). Jesus, however, cannot be stopped from telling the bitter truth despite the public unrest: ‘I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you (v. 53).”

The whole sequence of the narrative in John 6 tells us that at first, the crowd was very appreciative and trusting of Jesus’ words and deeds. In fact, they demanded for more signs and knowledge, which Jesus readily gave them albeit unpacking the hard truth of life. To Jesus’ claim that he would give everything for them (even his body and blood), the crowd began to suspect Jesus’ nature, mental stability and motivation. They became skeptical of him despite his proclamation of his all-out benevolence and magnanimity to all.

This experience of Jesus is not new to us. Generous people are often suspected for being hungry for fame; kind deeds are often interpreted as having ulterior motives; altruistic initiatives are often categorized as politicizing; constructive criticisms from concerned citizens are often tagged as anti-government propaganda. There can be no good people nowadays, because no matter how good they try to be, the people around them would raise their eyebrows filled with skepticism. Doing so is not reflective of the objective social situation, but is a projection of their own insecurities having this internal dialogue in their minds: How can others be truly good when I cannot? So they pull the good down, the age-old Filipino crab-mentality at work.

Yet, this should not stop good people from being good. Particularly, I laud St. Vincent School of Theology (SVST) for continuing to be good despite knowing that their collective words would most probably end up into deaf ears. The important thing in life is that we believe, do and speak what is good even if our identities and motivations are questioned in return.

- Rex Fortes, CM