24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 50:5-9 James 2:14-18 Mark 8:27-35
Saint Mark’s Gospel can be divided into two halves. Today we read the conclusion of the first half. Following his Baptism by Saint John the Baptist, Jesus began his public ministry; calling disciples, driving out evil spirits, healing the sick, performing miracles, confronting the Scribes and Pharisees, telling parables and teaching.
All the time the disciples are following him and learning from him. There is method and wisdom in all that Jesus does. He doesn’t burden his followers with problems or questions but leads them in the way that they would act and minster to people when had left them.
The healing of the man who was deaf and dumb gave Jesus the opportunity to instruct his followers on how they should be open to hearing God’s word and then, in turn, proclaiming it to others. Jesus realised that not everyone would immediately understand what Faith is, so, He used the curing of a blind man at Bethsaida to illustrate the gradual road to believing in Him. At first the cured blind man can only see dimly: to him ‘people looked like trees walking’. Then Jesus touched him again and he ‘saw everything clearly’. Our Faith works a bit like that – we need to ask the Lord constantly to renew and strengthen it!
In a sense, the faithful disciples following Jesus were climbing the mountain of discovery and belief. The summit of this journey presented them with a question from the Lord. Did they really understand who he was and what was his mission? ‘Who do people say that I am? There was confusion among them as there was among so many who followed Jesus. They could only think of the great figures of their history and ancestry – John the Baptist, Elijah or the revered prophets. All of these had foretold the coming of the Messiah. Peter, along with the faithful disciples had, as it were, reached the top of the mountain of Faith. He professed his Faith: ‘You are the Messiah! (‘You are the Messiah the Son of the living God’ Matt 16:16). From the heights of their profession of Faith the disciples then learn what Jesus will endure for them – suffering, rejection and death. Peter is shocked and determined to protect the Lord from this but he doesn’t understand. The Cross is the instrument by which the Messiah will achieve his purpose. And all who follow the Lord must endure their own crosses for the sake of the Gospel. Our crosses will not be as cruel and heavy as the Cross of the Lord. We will have the choice of being selfless, and compassionate and caring and humble and loving. That will define us as disciples of the Lord, as true Christians.
Once again in our Sunday liturgy, Saint James clarifies for us how we must live out our calling as Disciples of the Lord. “Faith is like this: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead”. Yes, we have responsibility towards our brothers and sisters – those ‘in need of clothes or have not enough food to live on’ or in any trouble or difficulty. By ministering to them we show our true Faith.
Today we might hear the voice of the Lord asking us “who do you say that I am? And we renew our Faith and trust in Him. We might also ask the Lord who does he say we are, does he recognise us as disciples who believe and proclaim the Gospel?