1.
Is 50:4-9
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2.James
2:14-18
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3.
Mark8:27-35
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No good Friday no
Easter
From the gospel Jesus
tells us, "no cross, no crown" There can be no Easter without a Good Friday. What we have heard
today from the gospel had been told by the prophets long before. Many of our
sins of omission in life are the result of our fear to face up something ,
unsure what it will cost us. We want to get Easter and bypass good Friday, but
this cannot be done. No cross no crown. There is a cost in Pentecost, living my
Christian vocation involves the fact that I have to die to myself many times in
the service of others.
The cost of
discipleship involves facing challenges more especially to stand firm on what
we ought to do. In the gospel today we are told that we should not avoid our
responsibilities simply because this is what the cross is all about. It is
unjust before God to avoid our responsibilities.
There were three young
trees growing in the forest. They were young, healthy, and ambitious. They
compared their dreams. one wanted to be part of the structure of the castle or
a palace, so it would be a spectator in the lives of the high and mighty of
society. The second wanted to end up as the mast in one of the tall ship
sailing across the world with great sense of adventure. The third hoped to end
up as part of some public monument, where the public would stop, admire and
take photographs.
Years passed by, all
were cut down. The first was chopped up, and parts of it were put together to
form a manger for stable ( for animal keeping building) in Bethlehem. The
second was cut down, and the trunk was scooped out to form a boat, which was
launched on the sea of Galilee. The third was cut into sections, two of which
were put together to form a cross on Calvary. Each had a unique and special
part in the one great story of redemption.
Getting to know each
other
It is my personal
conviction that in life it is never easy to get to know someone really well.
For example a husband and wife who have lived together for many years probably
know each other's qualities and limitations and have learned to accept one
another. The mystery behind human being has not yet been established. The
number of People we know really is quite small. Even those we know well can
continue to surprise us. We can discover a side to them that we never noticed
before. We can suddenly be reminded of the extraordinary mystery of the other
person, struck by the otherness of the person whom we have come to know and
love. We realize more clearly that the other person is different to me and will
always remain a mystery to me, even though I know them as well as I know
anyone.
From our daily life
experiences, it is obvious that if we were to ask someone who really knew us, ' who do you say that I am?' and
then asked that person to write a couple of paragraphs answering that question,
we would certainly recognize ourselves
in what they would write. Yet it is likely that we would recognize that there
are sides to us that are not present in the description. There is always so
much more to us than someone's account of us, even the account of someone who
knows us deeply. In the gospel Jesus asks his disciples two questions. The first
was 'who do people say that I am?' the answers the disciples gave were fine in
so far as they went ' John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets.' Jesus was
a prophetic figure who proclaimed God's word. Yet to say that Jesus a great
prophet which is what even Moslems say of him does not go far enough. Jesus
from the gospel scenario goes far by asking his disciples the more probing
question, ' who do you say that I am?'
Peter's answer went
beyond the answers people had given, ' You are the Christ, the Messiah.' Peter
in these words was saying to Christ ' you are the Jewish Messiah, the one we
have been waiting for, the one whose
coming the prophets foretold.' Yet in spite of the very good answer that Peter
gave to Jesus' question, he really did not know what was the exact identity of
Jesus, he did not know him at all. During that time the term' Messiah' meant
different things to different people. Probably Peter thought of a Messiah in
the tradition of King David who had established a kingdom, having defeated all
Israel's enemies. May be according to the mind of Peter Jesus would do the same,
driving the driving the Roman occupying power from the land. This was not kind
of Messiah Jesus understood himself to be. This was the point of departure and
return to Jesus that apart from driving Roman occupation from the land of
Israel furthermore, he would end up on a Roman cross, crucified like a common
criminal. Faithfulness to his mission would cost him his life.
When Jesus began to
articulate this reality Peter rebuked Jesus. In fact this was not Peter's idea
of a Messiah. Peter would not accept the otherness of Jesus, the mystery of
Jesus proper identity. At the first moment as we have heard from the gospel
Peter was comfortable telling Jesus who he was, but when Jesus began to reveal
who he really was and what that entailed Peter became distinctly uncomfortable.
In our daily life we
probably all find it easier telling people who they are than listening to people
tell us who they really are. In particular we can struggle to hear the story of
someone's brokenness especially if our picture of them has been one that does
not allow for that. Peter wasn't able to
hear Jesus talking about himself as a
broken, failed and rejected Messiah. It was really after the resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ that Peter and the disciples were able to come to terms
with such brokenness, such failure.
We draw a lesson from this reading that it
can be a struggle for us to accept failure
and brokenness in others and also to accept our own brokenness. Jesus accepted
his own brokenness, and failure trusting in God to restore him and make him
whole. The broken, failures of this world, flocked to him, and in his presence
they came alive. We will more easily accept our own brokenness and failures if
we know in our hearts that we too can approach the Lord as one who can make us
whole. In our daily Eucharistic celebration, the Eucharist has been described
as the bread broken for a broken people. The Lord who was broken on the cross
for us is present in the Eucharist as our life-Giver. We approach the Lord in
the Eucharist in our own brokenness asking to be made whole, and asking also
for the grace to be able to sit with others in their brokenness.
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