“Whom will you serve?” “Do you want to leave?” Today’s reading put us face to face with basic questions of our faith. And demand our answer leaving an open door for us to turn away. Because faith is a free choice.

God’s questions and demands of answer don’t come from nowhere. They don’t ask us to take a step into the unknown without knowing how it will be like. Both Joshua and Jesus first show people what God has already done for them. All the history of the Israel, God’s chosen people, was laid before their eyes to help them take their decision. They knew how their life looked like when they surrendered to other gods. They also knew how it was when they were following faithfully the will of their Yahweh. Now they are asked to choose. Similar situation with the disciples: they witnessed all the miracles Jesus has performed, the multiplication of bread and fish, the healings, the exorcisms. They have walked with Jesus long enough to experience how life with him was like. And to know how live without him, without his “words of eternal life” looked like. Now, it’s time to choose.

For us is also the time to choose to follow Jesus or to turn our back on him. St. Paul explained beautifully to us in his letter to Ephasians what kind of love is God’s love for us: like a husband to his wife when they become one body. Human experience doesn’t know of any bound as powerful as this one. Even the mystics cannot find other comparison to even remotely discribe their union with God than “spiritual marriage”. God shows his love to us in one of the most human ways of loving so that we can really see it, feel it, touch it. And so we may decide whom will we serve and why will we stay.