WHO IS JESUS FOR YOU?

 

Homily for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Scriptural Texts: Isaiah 50:5-9, James 2:14-18, Mark 8:27-35

 

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus poses two questions to his disciples- one, on a general level and the other, on a personal level. But the two border on the identity of Jesus. By this question, Jesus is asking his disciples who he is to them. He is asking them what his life and presence mean to their life. It is a question that is addressed not simply to the senses but more especially, to the heart. As such, in answering that, physical qualities- how one looks, sounds and where one comes from do not so much inform our answer. It is our experience of the life and person of Jesus that inform our answer.

In answering the first general question posed by Jesus about who the people say that he is, the disciples said that the people saw him as John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the prophets. The people came up with such notions about Jesus probably because for them, Jesus acted like those prophetic figures they had mentioned. However, in answering the second question about who the disciples themselves say that Jesus is, Peter’s response came from a place of personal encounter and experience. He was able to discover that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah (the Anointed One) simply by his experience of him.

In our time, Jesus also wants us to know him but knowing him requires an encounter with him. The same question that he asked his disciples, he is asking us today. Who is Jesus for you? We cannot adequately answer that question without first having an encounter with him. Our knowledge of Jesus’ true identity must not be based on what others say about him. It must come from our experience of Jesus. Only then will our knowledge of him help us understand his mission, and build a good a relationship with him. It is the same in our relationship with our fellow human being. If we do not have a personal experience of and contact with others, we may not concretely capture who they are. If we rely on or build our knowledge of others based on other people’s opinion and perception about them, we may be running into the errors of inconclusiveness and overgeneralization.

By identifying Jesus as the Christ, Peter supposed Jesus to be the Messiah. However, Peter had a different conception of Jesus’ messiahship. His reaction when to Jesus’ prediction of his suffering and death shows that he expected Jesus to be a political conqueror and liberator; the one who will crush the enemies of the people. But he was wrong. Jesus is rather the one who has come to suffer many things, and to be rejected, and killed for the sake of our redemption (Mark 8:31). Jesus is the obedient-suffering servant described by Isaiah in the first reading (Isaiah 50:5-9).

As followers of Jesus, we too are invited to deny ourselves, and take up our own cross and follow Jesus. When we accept the sufferings that come our way, it becomes redemptive. Peter wanted the crown but denied the cross that comes with it. Like Peter, let no obstacle stand between us and the will of God for our lives. As St. James tells us in the second reading, authentic Christianity means faith in action. It means accepting to carry our cross with trust, patience and humility while relying on the same grace that helped Jesus carry his own cross.