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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