Homily
for September 17, 2006
Liturgical Year B - Cycle II
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Joshua Nyoni Topic:
Who do we say Christ is?
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Gospel
Mk 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.”
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Life,
as we
all know, is full of questions. As I say this, I am tempted
to say that life itself, is a big, complex question. As human beings,
it is in our nature to discover and to know. As you all know,
discoveries are made here in Los Alamos. It is within our nature to
discover, to know. We do that by questioning. The questions we ask
range from, I would say, very simple to the most difficult and
complicated questions. Those of us who are in school, especially the
teachers, know this. You wrestle with students. Students ask questions
in order to learn something and sometimes they ask questions to try to
embarrass their teachers a little bit or to get a laugh out of the
class. I used to do a bit of that in my school days.
In
real
everyday life, we encounter people like that who ask certain
questions, maybe with the aim of embarrassing or humiliating other
people, rather than learning something. At our work places, we ask for
instance, questions to our bosses. Sometimes, asking the right question
can lead to your own promotion. Asking the wrong question may even cost
us our job.
Here,
I
am reminded of my experience with Fr. John when I said the
wrong thing, at the wrong time, about Notre Dame and I got it. Only
yesterday, I had to sympathize with him. He is my brother.
You
see, if
you ask the wrong question at the wrong time, you get it. You, as
parents at home, have children that come to you with their homework,
and they ask you some questions. Maybe it is chemistry or physics. They
ask you questions and sometimes you have no clue whatsoever. I know
this does not happen here in Los Alamos. We are all smart, eh?
Jesus
today asks his disciples a pivotal question. It is a question
that opens him up so that he could teach them about the demands of
being a true disciple. He asks about his identity: “And you, who do you
say that I am?” Of course, Peter replied, “You are the Christ.” In
response to Peter’s confession, Jesus makes a threefold disclosure:
First:
That the
Messiah must suffer. Jesus wants it to be very clear in the minds of
his disciples what kind of Messiah he is: a Suffering Messiah, a
Suffering Servant of God, one who would be rejected, killed and yet on
the third day would rise from the dead.
Second:
Jesus wants
his disciples to be prepared to share his suffering, to share his
cross. Discipleship for Jesus entails self-denial, taking up the cross
and following the Master, going after the Master. That, in itself,
involves changing our way of thinking. It involves some dying to our
ways of thinking which are mostly
centered on our self-seeking, self-gratification, our self-interest and
ourselves. We need to change our way of thinking to think in the manner
of God. And how does God think? God thinks in issues of goodness,
integrity, wholeness and fullness of life. Jesus wants that to be very
clear in our minds.
Third:
That Jesus’
suffering and those of his disciples, would in the end, or ultimately,
lead to glory. Glory and triumph only comes after suffering. You know,
for instance that in Lent, we celebrate the joy of Easter Sunday only
after we have experienced the sorrows of Good Friday.
As
we
heard in the Gospel, Peter made his answer: “You are the Christ.”
It is important for each one of us to come up with our own answers as
to “Who Jesus is for me here and now? What are my values and
beliefs
about Christ? Do I value and believe what Christ values and believes?”
It is no longer sufficient merely to repeat the official answers which
we learnt in our Catechism sometime ago. We have to make the faith our
own for it to be alive and influential in our lives. Our parents’ faith
is not ours until we walk the journey ourselves. We need to grow in the
faith. We must believe out of personal conviction. Such a faith will
certainly flow into deeds and actions.