(Homily 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time-Yr B)
The
overriding theme that permeates the readings of this Sunday 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 the
“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.
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 see 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”.
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 impending suffering, death and resurrection. 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 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 triumphalist 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 triumphalist 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, a once and for all
experience, 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.
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? Who is Jesus for you?
(Fr. Vitus Chigozie,
SC)
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