Sunday, September 12, 2021

 

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

12 SEPTEMBER 2021

 

          Jesus walks with his disciples on their way to Caesarea Philippi.  In those surrounding villages, he is seeking a higher ground known today as the Golan Heights, much as I seek the higher ground of Colorado for rest every January.  He stops and asks them what the gossip about his identity is.  They give a few responses:  John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets.  Because they have heard his teaching, marveled at his wisdom, and seen his miracles, he asks them who they say that he is.  Peter gives the correct answer and identifies him as the Christ, the Anointed One of God.  Warning them not to tell anyone this truth, he reveals to them the mission assigned to him by his Father.  He will suffer greatly, as the suffering servant in the first reading had suffered.  He will be rejected by the authorities, killed, and then be raised from the dead.

            This mission makes no sense to Peter, who expects the long awaited Messiah to be a conquering hero; much like King David was centuries before.  He takes Jesus aside and rebukes him, telling him to follow a much more sensible path of saving God’s Chosen People.  Jesus then rebukes Peter.  In the desert, Jesus had told Satan to get behind him for temping him to think as humans do.  Now he tells Peter to get behind him and trust in the Father’s way of thinking.

            Then he clarifies to his disciples what it will mean for them to continue to walk with him on the way to Jerusalem.  They must choose the way of sacrificial love.  His disciples must deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow him.  He tells them that they must lose their lives if they want the Messiah to save them.  In following him, they will have legitimate concerns about their own safety, their own health, and their own wellbeing.  But those concerns cannot be the ultimate ones for those who choose to be his disciples.  They must perish.  They must be ruined when the time comes for them to make the decision to continue to walk with him.

            Jesus is speaking directly to us, his disciples who have chosen to walk the way with him as intentional disciples today.  We too have legitimate concerns for our own safety, our own health, and our own wellbeing.  But, there are times when we must put those concerns aside to walk with him through sacrificial love.  Mothers understand those times, especially when they carry infants in their wombs and endure the pain of childbirth.  Parents understand those times when they dedicate quality time to spend with their children instead of committing hours to climb the ladders of success.  Young people understand those times when they walk the way of the crucified Jesus and befriend someone unpopular at risk of becoming unpopular themselves.  During this pandemic, intentional disciples have learned to put the common good ahead of our own individual freedoms and opinions.  None of these examples involves nails and wood.  But each of them demands sacrificial love.

            Saint James understands these times well when he insists that we must express our faith by good works.  James is not contradicting Saint Paul’s words to the Romans that faith alone in Jesus Christ saves us.  But, it is critical to express our faith by our actions.  We cannot profess an authentic faith and ignore the needs of the poor around us.  That is why our parish sets aside 8 ½ % of our income to respond to the needs of those less fortunate than we are.  That is why we will respond to the requests of Father Larry Kanyike when he visits us next month to ask for our help for his impoverished parish.  That is why the work of our Saint Vincent de Paul Society is so critical.  That is why we respect the unborn, care for the sick, and tend to the dying.

            In our legitimate concern for health and wellbeing, we can trust the words of Jesus that our suffering will not destroy us, any more than his passion did not destroy him.  The Lord walks with us in good times and in bad and saves as we carry our crosses with sacrificial love.              

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