This morning’s Gospel reading is John 6:60–69:

Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”

As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” 

This Gospel reading, and especially Peter's response to Jesus, reminded me of a quote that I thought had come from Winston Churchill. Supposedly, Churchill had once remarked that "the Americans will always do the right thing ... after they have exhausted all the alternatives." Presumably this referred to our reluctance to enter both World Wars at their beginnings, as well as our decisive impacts when we finally entered both conflicts. 

However, a funny thing happened when I tried to track down the exact phrasing used by Churchill, as I have heard this in several different forms over the years. It turns out that Churchill didn't say it, or at least not in any identifiable event. Quote Investigator determined that the phrase likely originated as a more general statement about human nature by Israeli diplomat Abba Eban in 1967. 

On two separate occasions that year, Eban declared, “Men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other resources,” and  “nations do behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.” The latter turn of phrase does sound a little Churchillian, which is probably why it eventually got attached to the more famous figure. (QI has an interesting review of that process.)

Eban's observation works even better for today's Gospel reading, too. It's not just Americans who learn things the hard way, but all of humanity. And in our readings today from John and Joshua, we can see this in the history of the arc of salvation of Israel, from the Exodus to the Crucifix and beyond in all nations.

In our first reading from Joshua 24, we get an edited version of Joshua's prophecy for Israel after they conquered the Promised Land and had years of peace. In the full version, Joshua first speaks the words the Lord had given him, recounting His salvation of Israel starting with Abraham and Moses, and then through the battles that gave the Israelites their lands. Joshua's challenge to the tribes to decide whether to follow Him or fall back into paganism comes from the Lord, and is spoken as prophecy:

¹⁴ “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

This was no empty choice. The Israelites had been "stiff-necked" throughout the entire journey to the Promised Land. They had infamously created the Golden Calf as an idol and worshiped it while Moses communed with the Lord on Mount Sinai. They had continuously rebelled against Him and proven faithless. The Lord had punished them and forgiven them in equal measure, but He knew that human beings had a propensity for exactly what Eban describes -- to try everything but the right thing, usually led by their appetites rather than their love of the Lord.

In this instance, however, the Israelites chose the Lord:

“Far be it from us to forsake the LORD for the service of other gods. For it was the LORD, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. He performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among the peoples through whom we passed. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

The Israelites did the right thing here, after having exhausted other possibilities in the years and decades previous. But as we find in the scriptures of the Old Testament, they returned to idolatry and wickedness, followed by periods of repentance, but again choosing the alternatives to the Lord more often than not. They preferred the trappings of temporal power rather than the mission of salvation to all nations, and paid the price of those choices over and over again until the Israelites had either been destroyed, scattered, or subjugated.

The soon-to-be apostles reach this same decision point in today's Gospel. Jesus had just declared that salvation required His followers to eat his flesh, using a term closer to "chew" or "gnaw," so as to make the teaching explicit. Repulsed, many of them walked away, never to return. This is the opposite reaction of the Israelites in our first reading, where all of the tribes of Israeli stood together to declare their faith in and loyalty to the Lord. In the Gospel, rather than twelve tribes, we only have the Twelve disciples remaining.

Peter's response, however, reminds us of the pledge in Joshua 24. Having seen the wonders and signs, Peter understands that he must serve the Lord, no matter what the Lord commands. And even more, Peter expresses faith in the Lord that He will lead them to eternal life, not ruin, and trusts in Jesus' teaching regardless of whether it makes sense to him in the moment. 

"Master, to whom shall we go?" is a question that each of us faces, at every step of our lives. Eban's observation fits perfectly in the practical answer, too. Some of us are blessed with stronger faith and less need to rebel or test the Lord. Many of us, unfortunately, remain stiff-necked and convinced that we have a better path to salvation than by faith in His Word. 

In fact, Eban may be too optimistic, for not all men and not all nations survive long enough to "do the right thing" through the default of exhausting all of the alternatives. History is littered with the destruction of both without redemption. We turn to the idols of our ages: power, wealth, hedonistic pursuits, even crime and violence to service our avarice for temporal status and possessions. We make gods of these things that humanity fashions rather than the Creator who made all things, and who repeatedly throughout history has called to us in love. 

We turn to these things to avoid turning to the Lord and surrendering to His authority rather than ours. This is Original Sin's imprint on all of us -- a rebellion against the Lord and a jealous desire for His authority. As Jesus warns repeatedly, not everyone will find their way to the narrow gate, perhaps in part because the alternatives to us seem too plentiful to exhaust in a lifetime -- even if we know that the narrow path exists.

But that's a fantasy, too. There may be an unending number of objects of these idols, but the choice is much simpler. Do we follow the Lord, or do we follow our desires? That was the choice before the Israelites in Joshua 24, and that was the choice the Twelve faced in our Gospel. 

To whom shall we go? To whom will we go? Those are the questions we should ask ourselves, especially in the midst of exhausting alternatives to the Lord.  But while we have the ability to choose, we must know that the Lord waits patiently for us to come to Him, with forgiveness and salvation for all who do. 

Previous reflections on these readings:

• The Hard Saying, the Hard Road: Sunday Reflection
  (Last week, partly)
• Hard sayings and hard choices: Sunday reflection (2021)
• The food unknown for our journey: Sunday reflection (2020, partly)
• Sunday reflection: John 6:60–69 (2015)

The front page image is "The Baptism of Christ" by the anonymous Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece, c. 1485-1500. On display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Via Wikimedia Commons. 

“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature, looking at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.