12th Sunday of ordinary Time, year ’C’
"Now it jhappened that he was praying alone, and his isciples came to him and he put this question to him ’Who do the crowds say I am?’
They answered’ Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, others again one of the ancient prophets come back to life.’
’But you’, he said tot hem ’who do you say I am?’ Peter answered ’The Christ of God.’
Jesus’ identity is an essential question for the disciples :’ But for you, who am I?’ they say to Jesus.
The response we give him will have enormous consequences upon the way we are situated before Jesus in our lives. This response will show the way we understand ourselves, the world and other people. This essential question about Jesus’ identity say a lot about the way we already understand him.
Peter replies to Jesus, you are ’the Christ of God.’ He manifests humanity’s cry who is seeking his Saviour and his God. Jesus tells him not to tell anybody for his time had not yet come.
Such sinners are we and so wounded, that we could still turn against God through a wholly human attitude and self interest! WE have to get out of anger and violence that is within us, get out of vengeance and death drowsing in the whole of humanity.
The Words of Jesus are the fruit of his relationship with the Father and if we are to enter into them we need to go about being converted.
God give sus a spirit of love which brings to birth a spirit of goodness and gratitude. This si the gift that has us graciously turn towards Jesus our Saviour! And so we come to realise that God is Love, that He is Love in the heart of humanity in distress.
"But Jesus gave them strict orders and charged them ot to say this to anyone.
He said ’The Son of man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day."
Jesus speaks to his disciples about his secret, about his relationship with his Father who give shim assurance in his being, who gives him his Mission.
Peter’s response : ’You are ’God’s Messiah’ will become for him the accomplishment of a long road making him recognise Jesus as the Messiah!
And so Jess calls his disciples to be discreet about his path, away that reveals his being , his way of being, but also the way in which he is the Saviour of humanity which will reject him : ’He will be rejected by the elders, the high priests and the scribes.’
Jesus’ Cross is announced in a mysterious way, it will save us from death. We ca understand the realism of Jesus’ prayer which gives it such a presence. Through baptism we are marked by the sign of the Cross of Jesus announced in the Gospel. To live from the Cross, from the victory of Love following Jesus is before all to live from his immense Love.
"Then , speaking to all, he said ’If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.
Anyone who wants to save his life will ;lose it ; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, will save it."
By these words we come to understand the personal way each one will have to make so as to be determined to follow the crucified Jesus. He dispose them in this way to leave what they are too familiar with in order to accept and receive the revelation of Jesus’ messianic identity. He is calling them to follow him : ’Whoever wants to follow me let him follow me!’
We accept how Jesus gives us our true identity, the one his call calls us to be, by being born again to what it is to forgive.
The scret of God’s heart is revealed in this manner, he wants to fill humanity with hids Infinite Love.
We need to live in the love and respect of the holy Name of God when going through distressful moments, times of anguish and death.
If we are to enter into God’s Love we need to be converted deep down in our being. Jesus who is God announced by the prophets, carries the secret of his greatest Love. This Love, which is sought after in all sorts of ways by the creature, goes from one disappointment to another up until the day when we discover that Jesus is our friend : ’Yes, you are my God, I seek you before dawn. All of my life I shall bless you, raise up my hands in invoking your name."