Weekly Reflection: 24th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year B
Reading References:
1st Reading: Isaiah 50:5-9
Psalm: Ps 114:1-6.8-9. R v 9
2nd Reading: James 2:14-18
Gospel: Mark 8:27-35
The most fundamental question any person who claims to be a Christian and a person of faith can ask themselves is the question Jesus asks each of us today: “Who do you say I am?”
Do we consider Jesus to be our way, our truth and our life? Do our decisions, our choices and our actions give evidence to this belief?
Perhaps the Christian journey when it is truly lived is the most difficult journey we can possibly undertake. It requires faith that no matter what or how bad things may seem that ultimately somewhere beyond our own knowledge things will be OK. What this journey requires of us to do though is to love. Our human condition and tendencies get in the way of this loving almost daily. But the key is faith – faith in Jesus.
How many of us retaliate when we are hurt or when we are betrayed or when we wrongly judged either as individuals or as a collective? We can lash out with revenge and other responses that have nothing to do with love. But we can have a sense of justification about what we are doing because it shows that I/we won’t be stepped or wronged by anyone. Sound familiar? Often then the boundaries can become so blurred that all sorts of atrocities can result, leaving people asking the question: How could that have happened?
Faith in Jesus calls us to persevere through the hurts and suffering and to keep loving, and to keep doing the truth in love. For those who have been in a situation where deep hurt has occurred they will know the great difficulty in trying to love through these times. But those who have been able to remain loving will know the rewards of doing so. Not a reward that is felt or even really known. But the reward is knowing that you have done your best to remain faithful to love – this may not feel wonderful but it will feel right.
But how will this “remaining faithful to love” make any sense to someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus – who doesn’t believe in a God who is love – who doesn’t believe in something beyond ourselves?
When we can hear Jesus asking us the question who do you say I am and we have the courage to explore an answer and be open to the mystery beyond ourselves we will discover the road less traveled but it will be a road of remarkable discoveries and awakened awareness.
Faith is often confused with religious practice. So often in our faith journey we seek happiness and comfort which is right and good. But we have happiness and comfort confused. We seek it for ourselves – we don’t want to be burdened by anything, we don’t want to be challenged by the world around us, we don’t want to be reminded of the suffering of others – we want to be consoled by our observance to our religious practice and rituals and we want our lives to run as smoothly as possible. All we want is a happy and comfortable life regardless of how it might impact on others. This happiness and comfort comes at a cost to others and to ourselves and it is not right and it is not good.
If we are looking at Jesus and we are beginning to know who Jesus is for us then we will know that this happiness and comfort are related to our faithfulness to loving. Jesus would have hardly felt happy and comfortable on the cross but within his soul he would have experienced comfort and happiness (or in other words peace) and this would have come through his faithfulness to love.
As human beings we constantly fail in our mission to love. The great tragedy though is when we just walk away and abandon our journey to get to know Jesus because it feels just too difficult. This is why faith and perseverance go hand in hand. Any person of faith will also be a person of perseverance over and over and over again. Too often our faith is too shallow because it hasn’t been nurtured with the knowledge of who Jesus is for us.
We see this perseverance present in our psalmist today I love the Lord for he has heard the cry of my appeal………I was helpless so he saved me………He has kept my soul from death my eyes from tears and my feet from stumbling. I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.
The problem for us is that we do not like feeling helpless or dependent – we fight against it – we fight against the very essence of what will give us life. But the person of faith who knows who Jesus is for them will grow in happiness and comfort as they discover more deeply their dependence and helplessness. How strange this can sound for us but our faith calls us to believe its profound truth.
Today’s readings are a great source of hope for us. We all long for this communion with God. But along the way we can feel like failures, we can feel pathetic, we can feel like everything is beyond our reach, we can feel totally helpless and lost. It is at these times when our perseverance is critical. It is at these times when our faith is truly tested. It is at these times when we need to open our hearts to hear Jesus say to us: If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take us his cross and follow me…
WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?
1st Reading: Isaiah 50:5-9
Psalm: Ps 114:1-6.8-9. R v 9
2nd Reading: James 2:14-18
Gospel: Mark 8:27-35
The most fundamental question any person who claims to be a Christian and a person of faith can ask themselves is the question Jesus asks each of us today: “Who do you say I am?”
Do we consider Jesus to be our way, our truth and our life? Do our decisions, our choices and our actions give evidence to this belief?
Perhaps the Christian journey when it is truly lived is the most difficult journey we can possibly undertake. It requires faith that no matter what or how bad things may seem that ultimately somewhere beyond our own knowledge things will be OK. What this journey requires of us to do though is to love. Our human condition and tendencies get in the way of this loving almost daily. But the key is faith – faith in Jesus.
How many of us retaliate when we are hurt or when we are betrayed or when we wrongly judged either as individuals or as a collective? We can lash out with revenge and other responses that have nothing to do with love. But we can have a sense of justification about what we are doing because it shows that I/we won’t be stepped or wronged by anyone. Sound familiar? Often then the boundaries can become so blurred that all sorts of atrocities can result, leaving people asking the question: How could that have happened?
Faith in Jesus calls us to persevere through the hurts and suffering and to keep loving, and to keep doing the truth in love. For those who have been in a situation where deep hurt has occurred they will know the great difficulty in trying to love through these times. But those who have been able to remain loving will know the rewards of doing so. Not a reward that is felt or even really known. But the reward is knowing that you have done your best to remain faithful to love – this may not feel wonderful but it will feel right.
But how will this “remaining faithful to love” make any sense to someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus – who doesn’t believe in a God who is love – who doesn’t believe in something beyond ourselves?
When we can hear Jesus asking us the question who do you say I am and we have the courage to explore an answer and be open to the mystery beyond ourselves we will discover the road less traveled but it will be a road of remarkable discoveries and awakened awareness.
Faith is often confused with religious practice. So often in our faith journey we seek happiness and comfort which is right and good. But we have happiness and comfort confused. We seek it for ourselves – we don’t want to be burdened by anything, we don’t want to be challenged by the world around us, we don’t want to be reminded of the suffering of others – we want to be consoled by our observance to our religious practice and rituals and we want our lives to run as smoothly as possible. All we want is a happy and comfortable life regardless of how it might impact on others. This happiness and comfort comes at a cost to others and to ourselves and it is not right and it is not good.
If we are looking at Jesus and we are beginning to know who Jesus is for us then we will know that this happiness and comfort are related to our faithfulness to loving. Jesus would have hardly felt happy and comfortable on the cross but within his soul he would have experienced comfort and happiness (or in other words peace) and this would have come through his faithfulness to love.
As human beings we constantly fail in our mission to love. The great tragedy though is when we just walk away and abandon our journey to get to know Jesus because it feels just too difficult. This is why faith and perseverance go hand in hand. Any person of faith will also be a person of perseverance over and over and over again. Too often our faith is too shallow because it hasn’t been nurtured with the knowledge of who Jesus is for us.
We see this perseverance present in our psalmist today I love the Lord for he has heard the cry of my appeal………I was helpless so he saved me………He has kept my soul from death my eyes from tears and my feet from stumbling. I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.
The problem for us is that we do not like feeling helpless or dependent – we fight against it – we fight against the very essence of what will give us life. But the person of faith who knows who Jesus is for them will grow in happiness and comfort as they discover more deeply their dependence and helplessness. How strange this can sound for us but our faith calls us to believe its profound truth.
Today’s readings are a great source of hope for us. We all long for this communion with God. But along the way we can feel like failures, we can feel pathetic, we can feel like everything is beyond our reach, we can feel totally helpless and lost. It is at these times when our perseverance is critical. It is at these times when our faith is truly tested. It is at these times when we need to open our hearts to hear Jesus say to us: If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take us his cross and follow me…
WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?
posted by Annemarie Reiner at 6:32 PM
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