TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - B

TWENTIFOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B (Is 50:5-9a; James 2:14-18; Mark 8:27-35) Theme: We are anointed servants of God: Let us proclaim our identity with the deeds of faith Reflection: Person and Mission of Jesus are intertwined - Last Sunday, through the reading, the Church has presented to us Jesus as the Saviour. By working a miracle and by healing a deaf and dumb man, Jesus revealed himself to be the Redeemer who saves and restores human being. He has come into the world to make everything perfect. This was the surprising and overwhelming proclamation of the people who have observed what Jesus has done: “He makes well everything. He makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak” (Mark 7:37). Jesus manifests himself as the one who renews and perfects everything: he brings back the original identity of man being created in the image and likeness of God. Through this passage as many other similar miracles we know that Jesus is the Saviour of man and Restorer of the creation. In other words, Jesus is the Messiah. This is the truth that the Church proclaims with today’s scriptural readings. - Indissoluble unity between the person and mission of Jesus: Jesus as person is not separate from his mission. He is what he has come to fulfil. His mission defines his identity. Already carrying the name, indicated by an angel, Jesus he takes up a mission of saving because Jesus signifies Saviour. The Christ is also a name which indicates not who is but what he is and what he does. Christ means an Anointed by God, Messiah who comes to save his people, and a “One Sent” by the Father to reveal his eternal plan of love and to make the people to participate in it. In this way, already in his name Jesus Christ he contains his mission of being “an Anointed servant, sent by God, for the salvation of the world”. This unity between his name and his mission is what makes him a perfect Son of God. Today’s readings present to us this indissoluble knot between his being and his doing of Christ. - Christ means an Anointed one of God: In the Old Testament we have many references to the anointing of God. God anoints the prophets, kings and priests. They are consecrated with the oil for a mission of being God’s instruments. The anointing with the oil signifies the choice that God makes. He chooses for himself few by calling to himself, by making them accept his plan and by consecrating them with the anointment of the oil: kept apart for a particular mission. The ever alive example is King David. In this way, the name Christ has a meaning of “anointed one of God”. In the Gospel, when Peter answers to the question of Jesus makes a profession: “You are Christ” (Mark 8:29). They would have already known the elements of the Old Testament. Peter, in particular, even without realizing well of what he is telling revealed, through the inspiration of the Spirit, that Jesus is the Christ. The ultimate significance of what it means of Christ is not yet revealed. Already by bringing the opinion of the people, in which Jesus is understood as the prophet, the disciples also would have understood him in that way: as the consecrated and anointed prophet of God. Only little later Jesus explains to them what it means to be the Christ. Readings Faith is professed in responding to the question: who do you say I am? - “Who do you I am? … You are Christ”: The dialogue between Jesus and disciples must have started casually. Jesus is going towards the villages of Caesarea Philip and only on the way Jesus just asks his disciples about the idea of the people about him. o General question: “Who do the people say that I am?” is the general question of Jesus to his disciples. The disciples would have immediately answered because his name and fame is already in the minds of people. They have taken the place of the common people and answered: you are John the Baptist; you are Elijah and one of the prophets. Why the name of John the Baptist? His is the contemporary prophet to them. The people have seen him and they have listened to him. He has just beheaded. People have still fresh memories of him. Therefore, when they saw Jesus proclaiming the kingdom of God with the similar words of conversion and repentance (Mark 1:15) as that of John the Baptist, they have thought that he has come back to life in the person of Jesus. Why Elijah? Elijah is considered to be the greatest prophet of the Old Testament and he is taken up into heaven. There is a belief that he would come again. People are aware of this and thus thought that Elijah has come back to them. Why any other prophet? The preaching and the performances of Jesus are more similar to those of the prophets they have been reading through the Old Testament pages. Therefore, people have considered him to be one of the prophets. o Personal question: “But who do you say that I am?” is the particular and personal question posed by Jesus to his disciples. Whether he is happy or not of the public opinion of him, he wants to finds out what these twelve would say about. Jesus would have really expected something different. They are with him all these days. They have seen him with the authoritative preaching. They have observed the miracles he has done in front their eyes. They are closely associated to him until now. Now they should know little more of him that the common public. Jesus expected this and the reply of Peter would have made him content. Peter, as usual taking the voice of all, responds: You are Christ. Jesus is happy because he has said it right: He is truly Christ. At the same time Jesus is aware that they did not understand well what they are professing. Even Peter is not conscious of its significance. Or at least they would have connected what they heard from the people to what was already referred in the Old Testament: Jesus as the anointed prophet of God. The truth that they have not comprehended it correctly is exhibited immediately when the same Peter has hindered Jesus (Mark 8:32-33). o The Son of Man must suffer, die and rise again (Mark 8:31): Mark notes well that after Peter has made the proclamation “You are Christ”, Jesus warns them not to tell it to anyone and then immediately starts teaching them. Yes, it is a teaching. He teaches them that “the Son of Man has to suffer much, and to be refused by the elders, by the leaders of priests and by scribes, has to be killed and, after three days, has to rise again” (v.31). This is the new teaching. Jesus reveals the supreme significance of what it means Christ. He surpasses the common meaning that the Law and the Prophets have attributed to this name and unveils the true and authentic meaning of it: Christ should suffer, die and rise again. In this way, Jesus goes beyond the identity of the prophets. He reaches to another level, higher and ultimate level: being a suffering servant of God, anointed for a mission. o Christ is the Suffering Servant (Is 50:5-9): When Jesus has declared that the Son of Man must “suffer” (Mark 8:31) he refers himself to the image of Suffering Servant found in Isaiah. As the first reading of today presents to us, the servant, here, offers whole of his existence for the call he accepts with unwavering faith in God. This passage is full of significance of Christ: it is the third songs of the four suffering servant hymns in the book of Isaiah. The servant is defined as a man who is persecuted for the cause of the word which he has to listen from God and to announce it to the people. His message is directed to the unfaithful people (v.4). His voice, which is actually the echo of God, is confronted with the violence. The destined people, instead of embracing the word of God, have become foolish. The wise word of the prophet has fallen into the hands of the vice. The servant being “filled with the wisdom of God” has been treated by them as the buffoon. The identity of the servant is contained in his courageous encounter with these people and in carrying his mission with the faith in the one who has sent him. He knows that he would be victorious because it is not the will of the men but will of God (vv.7-9 and Mark 8:33 – “Go behind me Satan! You think according to men and not according to God”). In the trust that the servant placed in God the new evaluation of the suffering is revealed: suffering is not a sign of rejection but of election. - Jesus reveals his identity: Jesus, by teaching to the disciples and by admonishing Peter through this passage, reveals his identity. He shatters the old way of thinking of the anointed in the Old Testament. He opens the new dimension of Christ: Anointed Servant of God, Sent to save the world, by passion, death and resurrection. Christ is fully realized only in accomplishing his mission and he manifests it on the cross: “it is accomplished!”. This is true identity of his. His proclamation of God’s kingdom and his performance of marvellous actions in the form of miracles and other incidents is only a preface for what he contains. His content is his mission of taking up the cross and losing the life. He is confident, as it was the case with the suffering servant (Is 50:8-9), that the One who sends him on this mission will assist him with the life. Conclusion: Jesus invites us to preserve and proclaim this identity - By name and by mission we are Christians: We are called and consecrated in the Baptism, Confirmation and in the other sacraments. With profession of faith in the Baptism our name is changed: more than our proper name we carry within us the name of Christ, and it is for this we are called Christians. With the Confirmation we are sealed with the Holy Spirit to live as Christians. With Reconciliation and with Eucharist, we are nourished with grace of God to carry on our mission of being Christians. We need to preserve this identity. We should never delink the knot between what we are (Christians) and what we do (faith, hope and love). Our mission is to live as Christ lived and to become truly “alter christi”. - “Take up the Cross” is the call: after unveiling the meaning of Christ, Jesus invites his disciples to participate in his life. The one who listens to him and wants to follow him has to really become “the anointed servant for the mission of God”. Here is his call: “if someone wants come after me, has to abandon himself, take up his cross and follow me. Because who wants to save his life, loses it; but who loses his life for my cause and of the Gospel, will save it” (Mark 8:34-35). We need not worry of the way. He has already prepared the way for us: the way of the cross. We have to leave aside our worldly aspirations. We need to abandon all that controls our earthly life. Not enough. Leaving alone is not enough. We have to take up. We have to take up the cross. The following of Jesus cannot be otherwise. The one, who refuses to take up the cross, cannot become an authentic Christian. Not enough to profess our faith in the formula of prayers, in the Mass and in the hundred and one prayers we make. Faith is not a simple confession but it is an act of carrying. - Faith without works is dead (James 2:1): Faith is not just a profession but a procession. We need to carry it in our life. We need to transform it into action. Apostle James is very keen in teaching us in a very radical manner. He says that we are dead if we do not profess our faith with action. We are dead not in the body but in the spirit. We are dead not in the mind but in the heart. Action should manifest what we are. Our identity is in our mission: losing our life for others. Taking the cross means carrying our daily troubles and difficulties, insults and pain, not for our sake but for the sake of the Gospel. We blame God for the little troubles we have and we enough abandon him because he is not helping us in our condition. Is this not selfish attitude? We call upon God for our personal needs. But the truth is that we are persons in Christ: Christians. We have a task of showing that we, Christians, are still alive. How to manifest that we are still alive and in spirit? By working for salvation of us and of others. Therefore, we have to keep in mind this truth: We are anointed servants of God – Let us proclaim our identity with the deeds of faith