The Universal Church invites us to celebrate Sunday, September 15, 2024, as the twenty-fourth Sunday in ordinary time, year B. In the Entrance Antiphon, we pray: “Give peace, Lord, to those who wait for you, and your prophets will proclaim you as you deserve. Hear the prayers of your servant and of your people Israel. Amen”.
The first reading is from one of the four poems by the prophet Isaiah, called the “Poems of the Suffering Servant of God”. Although Isaiah lived over 700 years before Christ, his description of the suffering servant of Yahweh prefigures Christ’s passion. In it, the prophet says that he who perseveres in his faith in God will not be harmed even if he is subjected to suffering and trials. In the second reading, Saint James tells us that it is not because a man believes in God that his place in God’s kingdom is guaranteed: his faith must be followed by acts of charity and love of neighbour. A faith that is not followed by deeds is empty and meaningless. In the Gospel, Saint Mark shows us Jesus sampling the opinion of his disciples as to who people say he is. It is Peter, speaking as the leader of the group, who acknowledges Christ as the Messiah. Christ himself then goes further to reveal that he is quite a different type of Messiah from the one they expect: he baffles them by telling them that he has come not to free them from Roman oppression, as they expect, but rather to suffer and die and rise from the dead for our salvation. In the course of this Eucharist, we too are being asked the same question: who do we say Christ is?
First Reading: Isaiah 50: 5-9.
The Lord God opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spittle. The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. He is near who upholds my right; if anyone wishes to oppose me, let us appear together. Who disputes my right? Let that man confront me. See, the Lord God is my help; who will prove me wrong?
Comment
The passage of our meditation is a song that focuses on the suffering servant of God, who is docile and obedient to the Word of God. This docility and obedience bring him much suffering which he endures in silence, without complaint. His silent suffering is not a sign of weakness but rather God’s help that makes him stronger than his persecutors. When all is said and done, the servant stands tall and strong and all his enemies are struck down. He is chosen by God to carry God’s word of salvation and restoration to a people who maltreat him and frustrate his actions.
The evangelists saw the words of this song as finding fulfillment in Jesus, especially when the song depicts a servant who is suffering but remaining obedient to God’s word. That is why this part of the song is recalled during the Passion of Christ. Matthew says that “they spat in his face; and struck him; and some slapped him” (Mt 26: 27), and later the Roman soldiers “spat upon him, and took the reed and struck him on the head” (Mt 27:30; Mk 15:19; Jn 19:3). This passage is used in the liturgy of Palm Sunday (along with Psalm 22 and Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 2: 6-11), before the reading of the Passion.
So what do I learn from this reading? I learn that he who perseveres in his faith in God will not come to any harm even if he is subjected to suffering and trials. We too should not fear persecution when we preach the Gospel. As Saint Paul tells his converts of Corinth: “Woe betide me if I do not preach the Gospel of the Lord” (1 Cor 9: 16). We call on the Holy Spirit to come to our assistance as we endure hardships in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Second Reading: Saint James 2:14-18.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, “You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.
Comment
The passage of this day’s second reading forms the core of Saint James’ Letter. It is a further application of his principle ‘Be doers of the word of God’. It clearly states that if faith is not accompanied by works, it is barren and as good as dead. This teaching is perfectly in line with that of Christ himself: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21).
Saint James distinguishes living faith from dead faith. In receiving salvation from God through faith in Jesus Christ, man must strengthen that faith by works and by fraternal charity. A person who claims to believe in Christ without helping the needy is fooling himself. So a faith without deeds cannot obtain salvation.
As the Fathers of the Church say “Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but ‘in body’ not ‘heart’. All children of the Church should nevertheless remember that their exalted condition results not from their own merits but from the grace of Christ. If they fail to respond in thought, word, and deed to that grace, not only shall they not be saved, but they shall be more severely judged” (Lumen Gentium, 14).
In the Christian life, therefore, there needs to be complete consistency between the faith we profess and the deeds we do. Saint James gives a graphic description of a man who sees a poor man who has no clothes to wear or food to eat but simply tells him to go and keep himself warm and find something to eat. Of what help is such advice to a poor man who needs food and warm clothing? Instead of dishing out pieces of advice, we should pull up our sleeves and do something concrete for the needy ourselves.
That is the lesson Jesus gives his disciples who ask him to send away the crowd so they can find something to eat. He turns to his disciples and asks them to give the crowd something to eat themselves (Mt 14:16). The astonished disciples point to the multitude around them as justification for their inability to act. All Jesus is asking them, and us listening to this program, is to try to do something ourselves before turning to him for assistance. He cooperates with whoever is striving to help others. As soon as a small boy was willing to part with his five loaves of bread and two fish, Christ easily performed his miracle of feeding thousands of his followers.
So let us call on him to give us the grace of generosity so we can continue to cooperate with him in the spread of his kingdom on earth, especially by putting ourselves at the service of the poor, the weak, the orphan, the widow and all those who suffer in one way or another. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Alleluia.”
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.”
Comment
We are in the third year of Jesus’ public ministry and the feast of Pentecost is drawing near. Jesus had gone up to Jerusalem on two previous occasions to celebrate and preach the Good News. On this occasion, however, he does not go directly to the Holy City, perhaps for fear that he and his followers might be attacked by members of an increasingly hostile Jewish religious establishment. He instead leads his followers to the tranquil village around Caesarea Philippi (Mt 8: 22). Saint Luke tells us that it is after praying for some time that he put his famous question to his disciples: ‘Who do men say that I am?’ With remarkable simplicity they respond: John the Baptist, and others say, Elijah; and others one of the prophets (Lk 9: 18-19).
Then comes the famous question we are hearing today, which was not only addressed to his Apostles but to us as well: “And you, who do you say I am?” And there is only one possible answer, which Peter gives: You are the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Only-Begotten One of God the Father Almighty.
Through Peter’s testimony, the Apostles reaffirm their belief in Jesus as the Messiah. In an address he gave on January 7, 1987, Saint John Paul II said, among other things, “In our case, in order to make a more conscious profession of faith in Jesus Christ, we must, like Peter, listen attentively and carefully. We must follow in the school of the first disciples, who had become his witnesses and our teachers. At the same time we must accept the experience and testimony of no less than twenty centuries of history marked by the Master’s question and enriched by the immense chorus of responses of the faithful of all times and places.” Saint JP II.
Following Peter’s confession, Jesus reveals for the first time to his disciples that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again (Mk 8: 31-32). These are certainly very strange and troubling words to those who have witnessed so many marvels at our Lord’s hands. That is why Peter, as leader of the group, takes our Lord aside and begins to tell him “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you” (Mt 16: 22).
To Peter and his followers, the Messiah must be strong and victorious and invulnerable. We had been hoping that he would be the one to liberate Israel from foreign oppression, says Clopas on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24: 18). That is why a suffering Messiah seems such a strange concept to them.
Our Lord’s reaction of “Get behind me, Satan!” sounds quite shocking a thing to say about someone to whom he has just given authority as the head of his Church: “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 17: 18).
Christ’s reaction to Peter reminds us of his rejection of the Devil’s temptation in the desert after he had fasted for forty days and forty nights (Mt. 4:10). Christ is determined to fulfill his Father’s will and neither foe nor friend can deter him from it. Christ’s reaction reminds us of Isaiah’s prophecy of his passion in the first reading of this day. Suffering awaits the Servant of God, who does not shield himself from the spittle and insults of his enemies (Is. 50: 5-10).
The Lord speaks openly about his Passion, which Peter and his followers find difficult to understand or appreciate. He is also telling you and me that suffering acquires a new meaning through him. It is full of love and has a redemptive significance. Pain allows us to follow Christ to the cross. Suffering and contradiction in the name of Christ purify us. By carrying our cross behind Christ we follow him to eternal life. Suffering leads to joy. Dying, you destroyed our death. Rising, you restored our life, Lord Jesus, come in glory. Amen.
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