September 13th 2015. Twenty-Fourth
Sunday of Ordinary time.
Gospel:
Mark 8:27-35
Translated from a homily by Don
Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
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Gospel:
Mark 8:27-35
Jesus and his
disciples left for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put
this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him.
‘John the Baptist,’ they said ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the
prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he asked ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said
to him, ‘You are the Christ.’ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone
about him.
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was
destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief
priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise
again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started
to remonstrate with him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked
Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not
God’s way but man’s.’
He called the people and his disciples to him and
said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and
take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will
lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the
gospel, will save it.
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise
to you Lord Jesus Christ
Kieran’s summary . . . . The
first reading speaks of a Suffering Servant who can endure all insults and
beatings because “the Lord has opened his ear”. In other words, he can bear all
things because his relationship with the Father is the primary thing in his
life. In the Gospel Peter presents a completely different perspective on
suffering. He complains that Jesus should not have to embrace suffering and
death. Peter has just professed his faith in Jesus as the Messiah and he
refuses to accept that a Messiah should have to suffer. How similar our
attitude is to Peter’s! We expect our faith to be an insurance policy against
suffering and hardship! But the way that our Messiah wishes to save us is
different to what we expect. We want our Messiah to save us from hardship, but he, instead, wishes
to save us through hardship. We are
transformed by the power of the Cross from people who were originally wrapped
up in themselves to people who abandon themselves to God. The Cross teaches us
to entrust ourselves to the Lord and develop a relationship with him. We do not
embrace the Cross for the Cross’s sake, but as part of our journey of following
Jesus and entering into communion with him.
Like Peter we
all have the capacity to recognize who Jesus is but still fail to understand
the nature of the salvation that Jesus is offering us
In the Gospel
this Sunday Peter goes from hero to villain in a matter of moments. Firstly he
makes a wonderful profession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Almost
immediately, however, he becomes the voice of Satan and receives a public
scolding. Each one of us has this capability to understand a fact well and then
to make an aberrant interpretation of this same fact. Peter recognizes that
Jesus is the Christ but does not accept that he is a Christ who should suffer.
He comprehends that Jesus is the Messiah but has not understood the type of
Messiah that he is, nor the mode in which he intends to bring about salvation.
The Suffering
Servant is able to bear hardship and insults because the primary thing is his
life is his relationship with the Father. But Peter expects that the
relationship with the Father should PREVENT hardship and insults!
The first reading continues the
remarkable Canticle of the Suffering Servant from the prophet Isaiah: “The Lord has
opened my ear. For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I
turn away. I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who
tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and
spittle. The Lord comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the
insults. So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed. My
vindicator is here at hand.” All of these
actions are presented in a negative sense. We are told what the Messiah will not do. He does not turn away, nor cover
his face. He is not touched by insults, and will not be shamed. The point is that
this Servant is not seeking applause, nor acclaim, nor confirmation. It is none
of these things that form the basis of a relationship with God. Instead we are
told that “The Lord has opened my ear”. This signifies that the Servant has
entered into relationship with the Lord. It is this relationship that enables
him to endure all of these negative things - beatings, flagellations, insults.
Contrast this with Peter’s attitude! Peter indicates that the fact that Jesus
is the Christ ought to imply that he ought not to suffer! He ought not to be
rejected by the leaders of the people, suffer and die. Isaiah tells us, by
contrast, that the fact that the Servant has this special relationship with God
permits him to accept suffering.
Peter, above all, does not pay attention to the positive outcome that Jesus
refers to when he says that he will rise again on the third day. For Peter,
religion should be an insurance policy against misfortune from the start.
Often we expect our faith to protect
us from hardship. But God wishes to transform us through the Cross. The Cross
is not something to be avoided but to be embraced for its transforming power.
We do not take up the Cross for its own sake but as a fundamental aspect of our
filial relationship with Jesus.
How often we
hear Christians say: “What did I do to deserve this?” If we really think about
it, and lift our eyes to the crucifix, then we will realize that Christianity
is not about gratification and worldly reward. Very often we Christians are
very refined cultivators of our own wellbeing. We expect life to be a series of
comforts and rewards. We strive to create around us an environment of consensus
with an absence of conflict. But we are called to something quite different. We
are called to experience the power of God to transform us through the Cross. “If someone wishes to follow me then he must
renounce himself, take up his cross and follow me .” This involves a detachment from oneself, a
renunciation of the attitude that makes an absolute of oneself. We must take up
our cross, but this does not mean that the cross comes upon us unexpectedly or
by force, as if it is imposed upon us and we have no input in the process. By
contrast, we must take the Cross in our hands and exploit its power to
transform us. And, above all, we must follow Jesus; we must enter into
relationship with him. We do not take up the Cross for the Cross’s sake. We
take it up in order to follow Jesus.
“For
anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life
for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it”. My life lived for
itself is a little thing. The real substantial life, the beautiful life, is
that given to me by God. We must not fear losing our own self-directed lives;
what we should fear is not taking the live that God offers us. And, in fact,
God offers us that life through the very process by which we end up losing our
own lives (in that self-directed sense). The life that comes from the
Resurrection must necessarily pass through death. Non-one can ever experience
the Resurrection without dying first! This apparently bitter fact is something
that we must accept. It is not enough to accept that Jesus is the Christ. We
must possess him within us. We must live in union with him and be his
disciples. We must live the condition described in the first reading. The
Suffering Servant lives in a state of complete liberty, of great interior
strength, of marvellous self-possession, capable of withstanding these injuries
and insults. The Cross holds no fear for someone who lives in this state. In
fact, the Cross is the place where I place my truest in God and I experience
new life. God gifts all of us with these difficult things that call us to
entrust ourselves to him and abandon ourselves to him, renouncing our
self-directed schemes and placing ourselves in his hands. This gift is called “the
Cross”. It is what leads us to recognize the power and love of God.
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