REFLECTION FOR THE 12TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: The Profession of faith is a personal act. What do people say that I am? And you, what do you say when you were among them? Peter answers first, confident that they were not wrong in presenting Jesus as the Messiah, the One sent by God. Jesus does not deny that he is, but he forbids them to make it known from then on, because according to the people, the Liberator had to crush his enemies. Can the apostles simply call a liberator, one who will die on the cross? Why did Jesus ask his apostles these questions? The Gospel answers clearly: because time had come for Jesus to announce his passion to them. Jesus had not only come to teach people but to open for them the door leading to the Resurrection. Since his apostles now know him to be the Savior promised to Israel, they must learn that there is no salvation if death is not conquered (1 Cor 15:25). Jesus will obtain this victory when he freely chooses the way of the cross. “The son of man has to suffer much and be rejected by the authorities”. Self-denial is a fundamental orientation of our lives as Christians. We must choose between serving and being served, sacrificing ourselves for others or taking advantage of them (as our politicians have often done). “Let me seek not so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love”. In a world where it has become usual to live one’s own life and in so doing, to waste it, many difficult, even abnormal children will cause their parents to become true followers of Jesus in bearing their cross. Besides the cross-given to us each day, God will ask us to witness our faith and in that, we will have to run risks, even if it is nothing more than the risk of being ridiculed by our friends and our bosses. The fundamental question for this Sunday’s reflection is: During periods of violence, can Christians remain silent, limit themselves to their “spiritual” reunions, give no concrete indication of what they themselves think, believe and live? May the good Lord empower us this Sunday, so as not to be “worried or feel offended when people do not understand our work. At the same time when people praise our work, let us not be boastful but humble ourselves in the Lord whom our souls always thirst for! Not to us, not to us, but to God be the glory forever and ever, Amen. “prayer may not change all things for you, but it surely changes you for all things”. Have a blessing-filled Sabbath! Rev. Fr. Augustine, OSA.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 17:23:17 +0000
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