TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

21ST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A (Is 22:19-23; Rom 11:33-36; Math 16:13-20)
Theme: Our profession and our praise is to be “Glory be to you Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”.

Reflection:
- In the frame work of two weeks we have again the figure of Peter who has become and who has to become the “Rock of faith” for the “Construction of the Church”.
- Peter who has walked sometime back on the sea and begged his help in the moment of his drowning into the waters and thus merited a ‘comment’ of the sadness of Jesus who called him ‘You of little faith’ (Math 14:31), now after a little while, as today’s Gospel indicate, receives another ‘comment’: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah!” (v.17) and receives the ‘commission’ as well as the result of the profession of faith which has expelled from him the doubt and little faith: “you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church” (v.18).
- Even the last week, the Gospel has highlighted the ‘recognition and appreciation’ of Jesus to the Canaanite woman, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” (Math 15:28). Jesus is always ready to compliment us when we profess the real faith and as the premium he gives ‘each one’ who professes the true faith in him ‘a great blessing’ as “the healing of her daughter” to the Canaanite woman and as “the foundation stone of his building” to Peter.
- It shows that anyone and everyone can become the ‘part of his blessing’ only if we really recognize who he is and if we truly and with commitment profess our complete faith in him. Nothing and no one can block this ‘bond of relationship between the one who professes and the one who is professed’, that is, between Jesus and his faithful.


First Reading:
- God needs the human means:
o God has his projects for the salvation of man and the creation; He has his methods and plans to bring to the completion; but he always wills that ‘it is through the human means’ that he wants bring the salvation to its realization;
o All the prophets have spoken of this plan of ‘human means’; in fact, it is God himself who has spoken to them and through them to the humanity of particular time and history; already choosing of ‘prophets, kings and judges’ for himself and for his proclamation is itself a great significance that God does everything or wants to do everything only with the ‘human mediation’, though he could do even otherwise, that is even without it, because nothing is impossible to him;
o Time and again God transfers this ‘mediation’ from one person to the other, not because it is his play but because of the infidelity of the ‘mediator’. It happened in the instance of king Saul; when Saul has become infidel and unfaithful in his kingship for God’s sake, God immediately dethroned him and elected David to be the next ‘mediator’ for him. It is quite normal in the biblical context to find the situations of this kind;
- Transfer of power is for the ‘safeguarding of the house of Israel’:
o In today’s first reading we see the oracle of God through the prophet Isaiah;
o Prophet, who is to be the authentic interpreter of the story and the signs of the time, speaks to Shebna what God has asked him to reveal; God will always denounce those ‘officials’ who seek for the self-glory than the glory of him who has brought him to this position of being ‘a mediation for his will’. Every self seeking official will be a disgrace to the God’s loving plan of salvation and that is why the prophet is very keen and attentive in making the oracles of God.
o The context of today’s text falls under the ‘pages of oracles’ made concerning various cities (which starts from the chapter fourteen of Isaiah);
o The strong words that are used in this context are very powerful and shows the impatience of God with the ‘self-seeking stewards’ of his vineyard; while making this oracle we see in the previous verses how the prophet expresses God’s words to the present steward of God, Shebna: “O you disgrace to your master’s house” (22:18).
 Every steward is called to be the ‘throne of honor’ for the task he is entrusted with;
o That’s what God desires when he chooses someone to be the ‘mediator’ between him and his people; once it doesn’t happen he will immediate act on the particular person dethroning him and electing and appointing a new one in his place; this is exactly what has happened in the case of Shebna;
o Shebna is given the warning by the prophet Isaiah who says, “I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post” (v.19). God does not leave his people alone without any mediation; he immediately chooses another; here is ‘predication’ of the future steward who will take the throne of the previous unfaithful steward;
- Person and position do not matter for God, but Faith and faithfulness
o God chooses whomever he wants; he does not have any preference; it is by his grace that the person is chosen not because of the person’s merits; this is the procedure of election throughout the Old Testament pages;
o Once he elects the person and gives him the position of honor to be ‘his steward’ and his mediator; all this happens according to his will and plan for the people he has chosen for himself.
o Therefore, the person and the position he enjoys are not matters of importance for God because they are just the work of his hands; what matters for him is the ‘faith’ that has to be professed and the ‘faithfulness’ that has to be preserved by the person chosen and elected; as long as one is faithful and profess his faith by his words and actions he is worthy of the ‘throne of honor’ (v.23) for him.
- Being a Father and being a throne of honor is the task of God’s mediator:
o God take away from Shebna the power and authority and gives it (passes on, or transfers it) to the next steward and he already declares before who he is: “On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah……”.
o The procession of the generation is importantly shown here; Eliakim is chosen; but he is not Eliakim in the air but son of certain man called Hilkiah; by making the reference to the genealogy God manifests that:
 The election is made in the ‘particular time, in the particular place, and in the particular context’;
 The election is made in the ‘history of the certain man and therefore it is not a myth but a concrete event’.
 The election is according to the ‘procession’ (thus being generated: thus from the Father to the Son) and not according to the imagination and fantasy.
o God gives the ‘authority to his hand’ (v.21) to be the ‘father to house of Israel’;
 Authority offered/given is not for the exercising of the superiority and the power as one wishes but to be the ‘father’ after the heart of the God who has chosen him and placed him to be the father.
o God gives the ‘keys of the house of David’ (v.22) to be the ‘throne of honor’:
 Power of the key is to exercise the prudent usage of opening and closing of the door of life;
 It is not given to makes use the power as one likes and for his self glory but the glory of God and the glory of Israel; and thus “he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house” (v.23).
- Therefore, through the passage of today the prophet invites us to discover that in the story of the Church and in the story of the salvation God has willed to have the ‘need of human mediation’.
- The keys which are the symbol of power, and the linked verbs which are referred to it ‘open and close’ which are the sign of function and authority, are now given to Peter by Christ;

Second Reading:
- Also Paul who writes to the Romans the ‘greatness and profundity’ of the mystery of God and of his knowledge through which the ‘ways’ are prepared and offered to man to receive the salvation testifies that ‘everything is from him, and through him and for him’ who has become ‘The Way’ of God, Jesus Christ who says of himself, “the Way, the Truth and the Life”.
- This is the reason why we have to ‘give glory’ to him: “to him the glory in eternity, Amen’ (v.36); We are called into the life of God and into the life of Glory and thus we have to always ‘profess and praise his glory’ telling him ‘Glory to you O Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God’ (Gospel).

Gospel:
- Jesus is John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and one of the prophets:
o It is the comprehension of the common people and it is surprising to see how the people think and consider of Jesus to be this way;
o It is very easy to fall into this kind of misinterpretation and misunderstanding of person of Jesus; the common people who have heard of the prophets and recently of John the Baptist, have seen in Jesus all that was previously revealed to them by these personalities:
o Who are these prophets:
 John the Baptist and Jesus:
• John is the voice of God in the wilderness and specially he preached the ‘baptism of repentance’ and ‘forgiveness of sins in the waters of river Jordan’.
• Jesus came and started preaching the kingdom of God and his first words of the first proclamation, according to Mark, are: “the time has come, the kingdom of God is near, repent and believe in the good news” (1:15);
• When people heard of Jesus preaching the ‘repentance and conversion’ they have immediately seen may be ‘John the Baptist’ who was preaching the same repentance has come back in the person of Jesus and thus they are not in considering Jesus as John the Baptist with their common understanding capacity;
 Elijah and Jesus:
• The Prophet Elijah has raised to life the “widow’s son” (1Kings 17:17-24); he has manifested the power of God before the priests of Baal (1Kings 18:20-40);
• Jesus came and started doing miracles and one of them is certainly restoring to life of a girl (Math 9:18-26); although Jesus has raised to life the “widow’s son” from the dead as narrated by Luke (7:11-17) and the calling into life of the Lazer who is dead and buried (John 11), they manifested the power of Jesus to give life; Jesus also testified the ‘the Father who does everything in him’ and thus rebuked the priests of that time for their ignorance and arrogance to believe in God the Father and in Him his Son;
• When people have seen these miracles of Jesus and manifestation of the power of the Father in him, they immediately go back to see the prophet Elijah in him because of the similar acts completed by him;
 Jeremiah and Jesus:
• The prophet Jeremiah called for the new understanding of the works of God and especially he has preached the ‘piety, social justice and loyalty to God’ than to giving up of oneself to the worldly and passing powers; he also spoke of the ‘new covenant’ which will be written in the hearts of those who accept God fully and completely;
• Jesus also came and manifested in his words (the proclamation of the kingdom of God) and in his deeds (miracles and the works of mercy) the piety (his prayer), the social justice (his appeals to the authorities) and his loyalty to his Father (his obedience); he has also called to accept the Father as our Father so that the ‘new covenant will be established’.
• When people have observed all that Jesus was preaching and performing they easily compared him to the prophet Jeremiah because they have read also the scriptures in which it is written of Jeremiah;
 One of the prophets and Jesus:
• Any prophet is the ‘voice’, the ‘Law’ and the ‘the manifestation’ of God; all the old testament prophets have been like this;
• Jesus has come as the ‘word’ of God and he said, “I do not speak of anything of my own but all that my Father commands me to speak”; Jesus has come as a New Law and he has often quoted the old law which was given and how it is perfected in the new law of love which he gives; Jesus gives the testimony for the Father’s work of salvation and thus manifests God and his love for the humanity;
• When people have seen Jesus as being ‘the word’, ‘the Law’ and ‘the Manifestation’ of God, they must have, immediately, thought him to be one of the prophets;
o Therefore, for the common people Jesus is just as they have heard of him ‘in the prophets and in the scriptures’ and their understanding has not gone anyway further from here.

- Question to the disciples and the answer of Peter:
o Now is the time to enter into particular moment; now is the hour to leave the general understanding and embrace the particular comprehension of Jesus; what other said is over and now there should be the recognition from the part of the disciple who have been there with Jesus all the time;
o Now is the time to make a movement to the outside to the inner experience; now is the hour to enter into the profundity of the understand of Jesus and his ways (second reading); and it is proper only to the disciples and that’s what Jesus wants to discover and he asks them thus: ‘But, oho do you say that I am’ (v.15).
o The conjunction ‘But’ is very important; it does not wipe away all that has been said; it only keeps it aside to open up a new understanding; it only serves as the ‘foundation and basis’ for the further construction of the truth; it shows that Jesus is not fully content with the previous answers and wants to know little more and little better; and he is very happy when Peter has come up with the beautiful and incomparable answer: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (v.16).
o ‘Amazing and at the same time un-understandable answer’: Peter have not just said the answer but he has ‘professed the faith’; he himself must have surprised with the answer that has come out of his mouth and even more the other disciples; it is sometimes wonderstruck to see the ‘answers of Peter’; even some time after he would say ‘you have the words of eternal life and to whom shall we go’. Only Jesus knows how and from where has come these words of inspiration and he knows certainly that the same Father who is working in him is also now working in his disciples;
o That is the reason why Jesus immediately exclaims: “Blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah, it is not your flesh or blood which have revealed this to you but my Father in heaven” (v.17);
 Here once again we see, the reference to the procession (first reading reflections) when speaks of Peter and from where he comes from, ‘his father’ and thus ‘son of Jonah’;
 It shows also neither the person and nor personal intelligence which has come through the sharing of ‘flesh and blood’ of the human generation, has the capacity to reveal who is unless and until ‘His Father’ works and makes him to profess;
 Therefore, the recognition of Jesus and professing the faith in him is not the work of ‘flesh and blood’ and all that man contains but ‘the grace that comes from above’, the spirit, which makes one to profess this kind of faith;
o ‘Profession of faith’ is always accompanied by the ‘blessing’ or ‘glory’: Jesus immediately makes Peter a Rock and a Foundation on which he wants to build his community of believers, the Church; and gives him ‘the keys of the kingdom’ of God as the fruit for the humble recognition and reception of Jesus as the Son of God;
- Three movements/moments: QUESTION – REVELATION – MISSION:
o Question of Jesus: the search for the true identity and presence of Jesus: who is he and what he means for us is the question we have to pose always and try to find out the answer; this search is to be present always and it should be an on-going research for the true meaning of life in Christ:
o Revelation by God: when there a sincere search and authentic disposition for the knowledge of God and his ways, there will be certainly the revelation; when our search reaches its final and yet limited sphere, there enters the Spirit of God to makes us travel still further in our understating; it is free choice of God and he offers this possibility of revelation for all those who seek him with the committed faith and that is the spiritual meaning of Jesus words, “ask and you shall be given, seek and you shall find and knock and the door shall be opened to you” (Math 7:7);
o Mission and Commission: the search and the revelation do not stop there; every search/question and every revelation has a mission; it has a further procedure; it has to be passed on from one to the other and from the other to another; as the power is passed on from the person to the person (first reading) so also the revelation has to be passed (given in succession) from one to another; this act of passing on this revelation is the mission of each one who receives this revelation;

- Revelation sustains the ‘unity’ between the ‘question’ and the ‘mission’:
o It is the revelation of God that makes the true seeker to find an answer for the question of meaning of life and meaning of God’s presence;
o It is the same revelation that makes the faithful finder to carry on the act of passing on of this faith by his words and deeds and in one word, by the testimony of his life;
o It is the revelation who balances the ‘true seeker’ and ‘faithful finder’ to be always and at same time a man of the profession of faith;

Conclusion

- Meaning of the readings for us today:
o We are here in the Church, the place of revelation and the mountain of manifestation of God;
o We are here ‘in the moment of revelation’ between ‘the question of life’ with which we have entered into this presence of God and ‘the mission of faith’ with which we will proceed after this revelation of the truth of God;
o Therefore, the revelation, which comes to us in the form of the word proclaimed (the Scriptures) and the bread broken (the Eucharist), is the central and important and sustaining moment of our Christian life;
o Without this revelation (the mass and the prayers) our questions of life and the quest for the truth has no meaning; and without this revelation our life has no mission and thus we do not manifest what we are and thus we become ‘the men of little faith’ or ‘the men of the world’, not of God;
o In this way, this moment of the mass is very important to know what is God for me and you and what is his mission from now on for me and for you; if we miss this moment of revelation (and thus the moment of meeting Jesus and having his manifestation in the Word and in Sacraments) we miss everything in life: we miss our true identity and we miss our destiny; without ‘identity’ and ‘destiny’ what are we on earth?

- Each one of us is called to be the ‘custodian’ of the family of God, the Church:
o Each one of us is given the ‘authority’ to be the master of himself and the ‘responsibility’ to be the ‘guardian’ of the community; and not vice-versa, that is, we are not called to be the masters of others, making use of the authority given to us for our self-glory and self-growth (first reading); we are to accept God’s ways in Jesus for whom everything exists and for whom and in whom we have life (second reading) and thus give glory to God by professing our faith in Him by giving him glory because He is ‘The Christ, the Son of the Living God’ (Gospel);
- Thus let us all proclaim and profess with one voice our faith: “Glory to you Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Amen.”