Who Do YOU Say That I Am?

Who Do YOU Say That I Am?
Homily for Sunday, September 13, 2015    
Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time - B
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi

“Who do you say that I am?” 
 
With these words, Jesus puts his disciples on the spot.  How would you answer?

Picture yourself as one of the disciples.  In fact, picture yourself as Peter. You have been traveling with Jesus for some time now, and up to this point (at least in Mark’s Gospel), you would have heard Jesus:
• Teach about fasting and proper respect for the Sabbath
• Select you and 11 others to be his Apostles and to share in his mission
• Preach many parables and explain them to you
• Rebuke the wind and calm the violent sea

And you would have seen Jesus:
• Cleanse a man of an unclean spirit in the synagogue at Capernaum
• Cure Simon Peter’s mother-in-law of her illness
• Cleanse a leper
• Forgive a paralytic his sins AND then heal him of his paralysis
• Cure a man with a withered hand in the synagogue
• Free the Gerasene demoniac from the demons that possessed him
• Heal a woman who had been afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years
• Raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead
• Feed 5000 men with five loaves and two fish
• Walk on water and calm the winds
• Heal a Syrophoenician woman’s daughter
• Open the ears of a deaf man and remove his speech impediment
• Feed another 4000 men with seven loaves and a few fish, and just recently
• Open the eyes of a blind man.
 
Pretty impressive, don’t you think?  Now, after all of these signs, Jesus turns to you and your buddies and asks, “Who do people say that I am?”

I try to imagine how he might have asked those questions.  I mean, you’re all walking along the road, right? Headed for another town, kind of chatting among yourselves? No cell phones or other electronics to distract you?  So would he have asked it in a casual sort of way?  “Hey, tell me – who do people say that I am?  Or, would he have been more forceful: “OK, now, tell me – who do people say that I am?”
 
In either case, the answers your fellow disciples give echo the comments that King Herod had heard about Jesus earlier in Mark’s Gospel after he had John the Baptist executed:  He was curious about Jesus, and his advisors say that Jesus was John raised up from the dead;or  he was Elijah; or he was just another prophet.

So the rest of the guys, they all say the same thing.  John.  Elijah.  Just another prophet.
But then, Jesus stops and puts you on the spot.

“But who do YOU say that I am?”
 
What would you say, Peter? How would you answer that question today?  As Peter, in your usual brash and impulsive way, jump right in.  “You are the CHRIST!”  Boldly!  With a sense of pride, maybe?  That sense of privilege that comes from being part of the elite inner circle? In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus even blesses you and promises you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. You’re probably feeling pretty smug about now, right? You, Peter:  the Apostle. 

But now, after all you’ve seen and heard, Jesus begins to teach you about how he has to suffer and die.  He’s being brutally honest with you, not hiding anything or pulling any punches.  He will rise again but he will be murdered. 

At first, you refuse to believe it.  Who would blame you?  After all, think of all the wonderful signs that you’ve seen Jesus do. How could anything happen to him?  He’s the CHRIST!  He can do ANYTHING!  And not only does Peter refuse to believe it, he REBUKES Jesus!

Isn’t there times in our lives that we presume that we know more than those around us, especially to those closest to us, because we do not want to believe what they have to say and so we, in our effort to help them, correct them?

But Jesus is swift to turn on Peter and condemn his attitude of arrogance.  “You are thinking like a creature of earth, not of heaven.  Not as God does.”
 
Not as God does.  No. We don’t want to think like God; we do not want to face the evils of this world.  We would rather live in denial than admit that something tragic could happen – is happening – to someone we know. To someone we love.  Even to US.  We don’t want the responsibility.
 
We all have a tendency to develop a false sense of security and confidence when everything is going well, and we often refuse to believe that anything could possibly go wrong.  Jesus senses this in his followers and so he knows he must prepare them for the reality that is coming – his Passion, and the disciples own future trials.  Not a future of earthly kingdoms and treasures, but one of heavenly promises and an eternity with God.
 
So Jesus turned from his disciples and called the rest of the crowd to him.  He challenged them – he challenges us – with a tough command:  "Whoever wishes to follow me must deny himself and take up his own cross, and bring it to me." Jesus. 
 
One final point.  When we think about what is “our cross”, we may have a tendency to assume that Jesus means our own personal problems.  That would be thinking as human beings do, but not as God does.  In God’s eyes, in addition to whatever problems that we face personally, the cross we must pick up is the one assigned to us by God as seen through the Gospel:  "Love your neighbor." "Whatever you do for the least of your brethren, you do for me." In other words, we must care for each other.
 
In the Letter of St. James today, we are given the cross which each of us must bear – the care of our brothers and sisters.  James is blunt.  You cannot have faith in God if you do not act when you see someone in distress and you have the ability to do so.  That is Our Cross, and we must embrace it willingly.
 
In a message on his blog this week, Bishop Farrell made an impassioned plea about a humanitarian crisis to our faith - a message about the terror caused by ISIS in Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, and the refugees fleeing for their lives.  ISIS'[s efforts to cleanse the entire region of Christianity challenges all of humanity. It should call upon you to look deep into yourself and discover how you can, in St. James’ words, “demonstrate your faith from your actions”.  I encourage you to read his message "We Cannot Ignore The Suffering Of Refugees" at: http://bishopkevinfarrell.org/  How we respond will be different for each of us.  But if we are not moved by what we see and hear, if we do not respond somehow and show, by our actions the practice of our faith, then how can we say that we have any faith in God?  What will God say to us, if we ask Him: Who do You say that I am?