Cycle B - Year II:

16 September 2018: Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading: Isaiah 50:5-9

Second Reading: James 2:14-18

Gospel:Please Read Mark 8:27-35

How deep is our faith?

Let me tell you a story of a math teacher and her students. The teacher presents a problem: "There are five birds resting in a tree branch. You shoot one, how many are left?"

The students answer: "None, Teacher!"

Astonished, the teacher asks back: "Why is that so, only one was shot?"

"Well, Mam, birds are not stupid! When one was shot, the rest flew away of course." End of the story.

Often, oral exam is hard and tricky, because it gives little time to think for the right answer. But also it can elicit the smartest answer.

The Gospel narrative for this Sunday is much like an oral exam for Jesus' followers. On the way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus tests His disciples with a crucial question: "Who do people say that I am, and who do you say that I am?"

Always quick to react, Peter answers by professing that Jesus is truly the Christ. Now no mortal being could have revealed this truth to Peter, but only God Himself. It was through faith that Peter grasped who Jesus truly was. Thus, Peter has the distinction as the first apostle to recognize Jesus as the Anointed One (meaning Messiah or Christ). Because "Christ" is the Greek word for the Hebrew word for Messiah. So Peter "passed" easily his practical exam on our Lord's identity, through the gift of his faith.

But what is faith? Well, faith is not just believing but trusting in the Lord. Peter believes and trusts that Jesus is the Messiah.

The second part of the "exam" is the requirement or demand for following Jesus. It is here where Peter's profession of faith about the identity of Jesus is tested.

Now while Peter accepts Jesus as the Messiah, but not a suffering Messiah. It is Peter's blindness that he does not understand the proposal of Jesus when the Lord speaks about His suffering and of the cross.

And so the response of Jesus to Peter's objection is rather hard: "Get behind me, Satan!" Now, "satan" is a Hebrew word which means "accuser", the one who leads away from the way to God. Thus, by addressing Peter as "Satan", Jesus does not allow anyone to lead Him away from His Father's mission. For Jesus decided to make it clear what it will mean to be His real followers: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

What do we make of the Gospel narrative this Sunday?

The Lord tests each one of us personally today with the same question in our practical exam, "Who do you say that I am?" And like Peter we can be quick in answering that Jesus is our Lord and Messiah.

But our Lord Jesus Christ challenges us to go deeper into the very roots of our faith through personal commitment in our faith. That means we must witness with our life situations our profession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

For example, Christian love demands that we be willing to embrace suffering, offer it to the Father like Christ did, and see it as a means to salvation. Jesus showed the way when He subjected Himself to a hideous death and was nailed to a tree.

As Christians, our love for God will approach perfection in proportion to our willingness to suffer for Him and for our neighbor.

But for sure, we do not go looking for suffering, but we will embrace it when God asks us to, for the love of Him.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!