A Reflection by:
FR SIJI JOSE, SSP,
SOCIETY OF ST PAUL.
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The twenty-fourth Sunday of ordinary time,15th September 2024, the readings seem to focus on the son of God, - to deepen our relationship with God and to live out our faith in practical ways.
Our first reading is from Isaiah, one of the “Suffering Servant Songs… Isaiah 50:5-9 speaks about the servant who listens to God and does not turn away. This shows us the importance of being attentive to God’s voice in our lives. We are called to be open and willing to hear what God has to say to us.
The second reading is from a challenge for each one of us to be practical with our faith. It presents us with the reality of what it means to be a true Christian. St James reminds us that: “Faith without good work is dead or useless.”
In today’s Gospel, we reach a key moment in our walk with the Lord – if notice, the gospel narratives takes a turn from the Galilean ministry to Jerusalem journey leading up to the Passion.
After weeks of listening to Jesus’ words and witnessing His deeds, miracles and healings, along with the disciples we’re asked to decide who Jesus truly is.
Peter, often the spokesman for the disciples, answered Jesus’ question, ‘who do you say I am?’ He answered simply: ‘You are the Christ’… You are the Messiah.’

We must not miss the greatness of this declaration from Peter. The Messiah was long expected, the Messiah was more than a prophet, more than a King. The Messiah was the hope of Israel, the culmination of God’s promises to his long-suffering people. Many in Isarel at that time expected the Messiah would conquer Israel’s enemies and restore David’s kingdom – to its lost glory.
Imagine Peter’s horror, then, when Jesus immediately proceeded to detail exactly what his messiahship/his kingdom would involve- suffering, rejection, crucifixion, death, and resurrection.
Thus, the path to His throne, as He reveals, is by way of suffering and death.
I am sure that Peter did not register the teaching well, he was perhaps so confused …A Messiah who would suffer and die? What hope was there in that?

Had Israel waited hundreds of years, gone through so much, through exile and occupation and oppression, only for their Messiah to be put to death?

Peter, gave expression to his shock… and Jesus rebuked him… saying: “Get behind me, Satan!” - the famous rebuke.

I wonder, though, if we would be any different? How often have I or have you, tried to form Jesus in an image that I find comfortable; so that he thinks and acts like I would, or would like him to?

Listen again to Jesus’ explanation for rebuking Peter: “the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.”

Do we think the way God thinks? Or ‘man’s’
And then Jesus further explains that it is not just Jesus who has to go to the cross. Each of us who profess to follow him, need to carry our own cross as well.

To willingly take up meant to be deeply courageous, willing to endure anything.

Endurance and courage aren’t the privileges of a select few, it’s the calling on all of us. After all, as St James taught us in the second reading today, our faith means nothing, indeed is dead, if it doesn’t have a tangible impact on the way we live our lives.
As Jesus tells us today, to believe that He is the Messiah is to follow His way of self-denial—losing our lives to save them in order to rise with Him to new life.
God bless us!

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