(Homily 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time-Yr B)
The overriding theme that permeates the readings of this day is the
unveiling of Jesus’ identity, as the Suffering Servant, as the Messiah, Son of
God etc. Drawing the issue further, the presentation of the Suffering Servant
in the first reading and the Christological confession of Peter to Jesus’
question of self-identity portray in a fascinating manner a balanced image of
the Messiah. The question of the identity of Jesus is the enigma that the
Gospel, especially that of Mark, sets out to unravel. In some episodes,
questions have been raised who is this
Man? But in the episode of today’s Gospel Jesus himself takes the
initiative of asking: who do people say I am? And you, who do you say I am? Even though no human image is able to grasp
fully who Jesus is, but in the image of “Messiah” the identity of Jesus is
revealed but not in a simplistic manner, for the real and authentic identity of
Jesus still evades this image, when idealized or demystified. Indeed, for
the Jews the concept of Messiah embodied all their expectations and longing for
God’s intervention in their history. They construed a Messiah according to
their own standard, need and mentality. A Messiah that will be very potent as
to set people free from wicked rules, liberate the oppressed, establish his
political rule and punish severely the wicked and the unjust. Their conception
was not as remote as ours today, though some of us today are still enveloped in
this idealized and demystified image of the Messiah. Indeed, providentially,
the prophecy of Isaiah in the first reading and the episode of the Gospel
reading together give us an equilibrated conception and image of the Messiah,
Son Of God. And again, the theme of
Christian existence orchestrated by the invitation to carry the Cross, is an
existential part of today’s message that need not to be taken for granted.
Today we read from the eighth chapter of
the Gospel of Mark (Mk. 8:27-35). The
passage of today’s Gospel is collocated at the centre of the Gospel of Mark,
between the first part and the second part, and this evidences its importance.
No doubt, Jesus has preached, taught and spoken with authority, he has
performed extraordinary miracles, yet his precise identity remains mysterious,
an enigma yet to be unravelled. Therefore,
who is Jesus? What do people say about him? And what do those very close to him
say about him? These two fundamental questions were raised by Jesus (v.8). The Gospel of Mark especially in
the first part, the first eight chapters can be considered a great catechesis
on the discovery of Jesus’ identity. And the evangelist helps us to set out for
this journey starting from the beginning of his gospel, in order to understand
who Jesus is and to adhere to His words with faith.
First, Jesus addressed the question to His
disciples: “who do men say I am?”. Some say you are John the Baptist, some say
you are Elijah, while others say you are one of the prophets of old. Second, He
now turned to his disciples and asked the same question: “But who do you say i
am?” Peter spoke up immediately, “You are the Christ” Peter’s answer was right
on point and extraordinary too. The
response of Peter is an anticipated confession of faith, it is an anticipation
of the full and definitive profession of faith proclaimed by the centurion at
the foot of the cross: “Truly this man was Son of God” (Mk.15:39). At the beginning of the second Gospel, Mark presented
his as “the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk.1:1). If we remember vividly well, in John 1:41 Andrew introduced Jesus to Peter, as the Christ, the
Messiah. Let us go back to Jesus’ second question once again, he asked them, “But who do you say I am”, ‘but’ here denotes that Jesus was expecting
a different response from his disciples, after their experience of Him and with
Him, they shouldn’t still remain at “here say knowledge”, Peter’s response is an offshoot from a
knowledge of an encounter. The response of Peter was exact, but Jesus
strictly warned his disciples not to speak about Him to anyone (v.30). The command to silence is
typical of Mark’s redaction. This injunction to silence may appear strange,
which reoccurs three times in the Gospel of Mark, and it is the “messianic
secret” peculiar to the second Gospel. The
messianic secret in truth is like an invitation “to wait and see”, to wait and
see the whole package of Jesus’ Mission and identity before talking about Him.
In fact, after Peter’s proclamation, Jesus began to speak openly about his
Passion and Resurrection. Christ will realize the prophecy of Isaiah, of the
Suffering Servant of Yahweh, as in the first reading.
The title “Christ” or “Messiah” are all appropriate to Jesus. Messiah
is a Hebrew word translated into Greek as Christos, and it speaks of Jesus as
the Anointed One. But at that time, the popular opinion at that time believed
that the Messiah would have demonstrated great political and miraculous powers.
The Messiah should be basking in his
glory and thrilling manifestations. Instead, Jesus announces beforehand
that his title of Messiah is totally different from the imagination and opinion
of the people. His teaching says it all: “Then he began to teach them that the
Son of man was destined to suffer grievously, and 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” (v.31). He is truly the Messiah, but not in
political or social terms, rather from the moral and spiritual dimensions, not through power and success but through
suffering and weakness summed up with his violent death on the Cross.
Indeed, Jesus will realize his messianic mandate by following the prophetic
tradition of the “suffering Servant” of prophet Isaiah. As we read in the first
reading: “I have offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who
plucked my beard; I have not turned my face away from insult and spitting” (Is.50:6).
Not too long after his wonderful response,
Peter derailed. He was not able to comprehend the density of the words of
Jesus, they seem to be impossible to him. After his profession of faith. Jesus
began to talk about his pending suffering, death and resurrection that the son
of man must suffer. These words were not palatable to ears of Peter, and he
reacted immediately. Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him (v.32). Peter was thinking in human
terms, not according to the divine plan of God. But turning and seeing his
disciples (as such Jesus was afraid that
Peter’s reaction may lead others astray, and he reacted there and then). In
turn Jesus rebuked Peter, “Get behind me, Satan” (v.33) a tempter. Jesus addressed Peter as Satan in response to
Peter’s reaction to the prediction of the Passion, because Peter could readily
accept the idea of Jesus as Messiah, but not as a suffering Messiah. In Peter’s parlance and in the mentality of
that time, a Messiah, who suffers is inconceivable. He called him Satan
because at that moment Peter wanted to induce Jesus to a miraculous and
clamorous Messiah. For if we remember the second temptation of Jesus by Satan:
“If you are the Son of God, jump from the pinnacle of the temple” (Mt. 4:6; Lk. 4:9b-10a), it is a
temptation of the Devil that is geared towards inducing Jesus to revealing his
identity with clamorous and triumphalistic manifestations. But Jesus frowns at
this temptation once again. Many a times, we are like Peter, we want to stand
against the will of God for ourselves and for others. We want to follow only a
triumphalistic Jesus. Many a times, like
Peter our oral proclamation of faith does not correspond with our outward
manifestation of the same faith.
Afterwards, he convoked the crowd, together with his disciples;
certainly the reaction of Peter has propelled him to educate them too. And at
this point, Jesus gives them the prerequisite for his discipleship thus: “If
anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his
cross and follow me. 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” (vv.34-35). In fact, in the Gospel Jesus
preannounced his Passion three times, and whenever he announces it, it
concludes with the declaration, that the disciple must follow the Master in
renunciation and in the readiness to sacrifice one’s life for him and the
gospel. On this, we would like to make three considerations:
●We are called to grow and mature
continuously in our knowledge of Christ, because faith is not a conquest, once
and for all, rather it requires a continuous purification and in-depth.
●We have to avoid the popular mentality of
Jesus that tends to idealize and at the same time reduce his identity. Jesus
indeed “is the Son of God” (Mt.16:16;
Mk. 15:39). Today, there is a widespread of this erroneous conception of
Jesus.
●To be a disciple of Christ that is being a
Christian by name and by fact, comports adherence to his words and style of
life. His way is not that of glory, success and self-affirmation, but of
self-abnegation, humility and self-giving. The
three programmatic words in the discipleship of Jesus are: Renounce yourself,
Take up your Cross and Follow me. No Christianity without the cross. Christianity is indeed costly.
The first reading from the prophecy of Isaiah (Is. 50:5-9) preannounces the ordeal
and suffering of the Messiah presented in the image of the Suffering Servant.
As we saw in the gospel, Jesus did not want to present himself as a political
Messiah. The crown of his kingship is made of thorns, and his thrown is the
cross. Prophet Isaiah talks about the suffering servant, in his words, “I gave
my back to those who struck me, and cheeks to those who pulled out the beard, i
hid not my face from shame and spitting”. In the words of the prophet, “he who
vindicates me is near”, “who will declare me guilty”. These phrases are in
connection with the passion prediction in the Gospel, where Jesus affirms the
certainty of his vindication, “after three days he will rise again”.
In the second reading (Jm. 2:14-18),
St. James picks up the central message of the gospel: faith. He asserted that
faith in Christ is not a question of words, rather of good works. Faith without
work is dead. Faith in Christ cannot but
be demonstrated, witnessed and authenticated through good works. The works that give outstanding testimony
to our faith are the works of charity, solidarity and sharing. Our faith is
sterile without good works, for in the parlance of St. James: “If one of the
brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to
live on, and one of you says to them, ‘I wish you well; keep yourself warm and
eat plenty, without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good
is that?” (vv.15-16). What good is
your faith? A good Christian has to
guide against the dissociation of faith from good works, faith without
corresponding good works is barren.
In all, the messages emanating from the
readings invite us to make our knowledge of Christ correspond with our actions,
which will be good works of an authentic faith. Our knowledge of the Messiah ought
to shape our follow-ship and discipleship too. But Peter’s knowledge was still
that of the Jewish idealistic conception. Little wonder, he wanted ‘sola gloria’.Therefore, the question of
Jesus still resounds: “But you who do you say I am? Above all, we pray that
Jesus may give us the grace to become real disciples and not mere admirers of
Him. For a disciple follows the example of the Master and imitates him, but an
admirer instead only talk about the master and his virtues not in an empathic
way. Jesus may our knowledge of You pass from gnosis to epignosis.
Amen!!!
(Fr. Vitus
M.C. Unegbu, SC)
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