September 12th 2021. Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL Mark 8:27-35

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL Mark 8:27-35

Jesus and his disciples set out

for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.

Along the way he asked his disciples,

"Who do people say that I am?"

They said in reply,

"John the Baptist, others Elijah,

still others one of the prophets."

And he asked them,

"But who do you say that I am?"

Peter said to him in reply,

"You are the Christ."

Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He began to teach them

that the Son of Man must suffer greatly

and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,

and be killed, and rise after three days.

He spoke this openly.

Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,

rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan.

You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,

take up his cross, and follow me.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for my sake

and that of the gospel will save it."

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

SUMMARY OF HOMILY

1.THE CROSSROADS OF EVERY DAY: SURRENDER TO GOD OR DEFEND MYSELF. The readings this week are very serious and challenge us to enter into the right relationship with the things that happen to us. The first reading from Isaiah (usually read in Holy Week) speaks of a suffering servant, a prefigurement of Christ, who opens his ear and does not offer resistance to what is happening to him, offering his back to those who strike him and his cheek to those who tear at his beard. The point is that this man has his ears open and is aware that all of history is in the hands of God. “Who will accuse me?” the servant asks, “for God is close to me and he will come to my aid”. We are at this crossroads regularly in life: will I entrust myself to God in what is happening, or defend my little corner? In the Gospel, Peter confesses his faith in Christ, but, in the next moment, is called “Satan” by Christ. Jesus had just asked Peter to remain silent about his divine identity. Why? Shouldn’t we broadcast the identity of Christ from the rooftops, using all the social media tools that we can? Indiscriminate dissemination of information about Christ is of questionable value, because the real issue is not to obtain information but to enter into a relationship with Jesus. In fact, salvation is not information but a place of death, the cross, where we encounter life. In order to be saved, we must learn to respond to the difficult and embarrassing situations that life places in front of us.

2. THE FAITH IS NOT AN INSURANCE POLICY AGAINST PROBLEM

Why does Peter not think as God does but as men do? It is comical that Peter takes Jesus to one side to tell him what he should say or not say! Jesus tells Peter to get behind and follow him, not vice-versa. When each one of us is confronted with suffering, we have a tendency not to open the ear, as the servant did in the first reading; we say to ourselves, “This shouldn’t happen to me”. We transform the faith into an insurance policy against problems and our prayers are pleas for our problems and our sufferings to be resolved. Such prayers are understandable but the fundamental thing is to trust in the Lord and to be led by him. We will never find a place where suffering, temptations, error and evil cannot afflict us! We do not live to avoid death or avoid problems. What we need is a response to problems, and this response is the salvation of Christ, which involves losing one’s life in order to find it. At times when our lives seem to be gone astray, we can raise all of our systems of defence (which don’t solve the problems but displace them temporarily), or we can trust the Lord, finally taking the opportunity to live as his children, in the name of Jesus Christ, asking the Holy Spirit to assist us in abandoning ourselves to God in the things that happen to us.

3. JESUS IS TO BE FOLLOWED, NOT TALKED ABOUT

What are we called to disseminate in the world, information or a way of life? What is more important, to tell everyone what we know, or live according to what we know? A person who makes an act of faith illuminates the people around him much more than any amount of information received! If someone imparts a lot of information to me about Jesus, I assimilate it according to my impoverished categories, preoccupation, fears and desires. I insert Jesus into a scheme of thinking that is as small as I am myself. However, when I encounter new life, a person who has abandoned themselves to God, then I find a real point of reference for my own life. We talk too much! Jesus is to be followed, in the place in the world where God has placed me, in the concrete situation I find myself in today.

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

Peter recognizes that Jesus is the Christ but he does not accept that Christ should suffer. Jesus severely reprimands him: “Get behind me Satan! You do not think according to God’s ways but according to human ways”. When Jesus tells Peter to get behind him, he is simply asking Peter to follow him. He is saying, “You must follow me. I will not follow you.” Jesus asks us to follow him, to renounce ourselves and take up our crosses. When we follow ourselves, then we make our own thinking into an absolute. This thinking might well seem very rational, but it leads to the horrors of history like Auschwitz. How different life would be if we followed the Lord and took up the crosses that come our way! Then life would be beautiful and sublime. The first reading from Isaiah speaks of a person who opens his ear to listen to the Lord, and this enables him to accept life’s tribulations with serenity. The first enemy that seeks to prevent us from following the Lord is the great god of our lives: our own ego. When we learn to say “No” to ourselves then we are enabled to come out of ourselves and enter into love. The house that we must always seek to escape from is that of the absolutisation of ourselves. The cross of coming out of ourselves is not imposed on us. Jesus invites us to “take it up” - an expression which highlights that it should be embraced freely and valued as a gift that leads to growth and self-detachment. Once we abandon ourselves, then we begin to think according to the logic of God. We begin to acquire true wisdom.​