Who is Jesus?:
The Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024
September 15, 2024
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Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 116; James 2:14-18; Mark 8:27-35
This question Jesus asks the Disciples is one we are to ask ourselves today. Who is the Jesus to whom we relate? What does it mean to follow him? For so many of us, we belong to a church or a denomination and we follow the customs and traditions of Catholicism, and we have to reflect upon what it means to be a Christian. Jesus must be our focal point.
For too many, religion has turned into a worldview. It has become a political identity ideology, and when ideologies develop, we move to an official platform and away from the person of Jesus. As good, law-abiding Catholics, we cling to a traditional form of religion. We get to know its doctrines, examine our moral lives in relation to church teachings, we focus upon the precision of our rituals, and we have privatized personal piety. These are all good attempts to be our best selves. We need caution because those can become the ideals that we follow, and we cannot forget that above all we follow a man who was crucified and raised from the dead and still is among us today. We must remember the man.
Many people experience the weakening of Catholicism and Christianity. Some people offer reasons for its decline. I am not ready to make that claim. While some blame secularism, it might be more helpful to see that secularization has not eliminated religion but transformed it. In this current period, religion has become more dynamic, vibrant, powerful, and much broader. Religion is spilling over into new dimensions, like the internet, and it permeates both private and public spheres.
I will say that churches, both Catholic and Protestant, have lost their monopoly on religion. First, they lost control of the secular sphere, and now they lost control over the practice of religious life. Secularism is not the great evil. In fact, the greatest competitor to churches is a religiosity, a way of being a person of faith, that is beyond the control of the church. The churches have lost influence over the people who do not participate in church life. In some ways, new symbols are introduced through art and literature, and these symbols provide reflection, research, and rediscovery – but it is outside the boundaries of church authority. Consider, for instance, the way that people outside the church practice spirituality. Many are seeking God, a life of faith, and when the church is not there to have input, people will find other ways of doing so. Secular retreat and wellness centers that are not church based are prospering.
For a viable future Christianity, we must figure out how to relate to those spiritual seekers who come from beyond our faith traditions. We cannot try to squeeze people into the institutional models of the church any longer. Those boundaries must be opened wider because the spiritual face of the world is changing rapidly. The church must go forth, beyond its walls and buildings, to the poor, the marginalized, and the wounded. It must go out, by virtue of our baptism, to proclaim God’s presence to those who suffer and are vulnerable. We must address complicated existential and spiritual questions in meaningful ways in we are to be credible and authentic.
Where do we get this credibility, this authenticity? We listen to the voice of the crucified, raised one who still stands among us and asks, “Who do you say that I am?” It is a valid question. We must return to him, to live and minster as he does, to know his concerns and what breaks his heart. With this question, he asks, “Do you want to accept my friendship? After you give it thoughtful reflection, I want nothing more than for you to say ‘yes.’”
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (1 Corinthians 11) I hear that when you meet as a Church there are divisions among you, and to a degree I believe it; there have to be factions among you in order that also those who are approved among you may become known.
Tuesday: (1 Corinthians 12) As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body
Wednesday: (1 Corinthians 12) Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
Thursday: (1 Corinthians 15) For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
Friday (1 Corinthians 15) If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised.
Saturday (Ephesians 4) I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Gospel:
Monday: (Luke 7) A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die, and he was valuable to him. When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him,
asking him to come and save the life of his slave.
Tuesday: (Luke 7) Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.
Wednesday (Luke 7) For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine,
and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
Thursday (Luke 7) A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.
Friday (Luke 8) Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others
who provided for them out of their resources.
Saturday (Matthew 9) As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples.
Saints of the Week
September 15: Our Lady of Sorrows was once called the Seven Sorrows of Mary as introduced by the Servite Friars. After suffering during his captivity in France, Pius VII renamed the devotion that encapsulates: Simeon's prophecy, the flight into Egypt, searching for Jesus at age 12 in the Temple, the road to Calvary, the crucifixion, the deposition, and the entombment.
September 16: Cornelius, pope and martyr (d. 253) and Cyprian, bishop and martyr (200-258) both suffered in the Decian persecutions. Cornelius was being attacked by Novatian, but since Novatian's teachings were condemned, he received the support of the powerful bishop, Cyprian. Cyprian was a brilliant priest and bishop of Carthage who wrote on the unity of the church, the role of bishops, and the sacraments. Cyprian died under Valerius after supporting his church in exile by letters of encouragement.
September 17: Robert Bellarmine, S.J., bishop and doctor (1542-1621) became a Jesuit professor at the Louvain and then professor of Controversial theology at the Roman College. He wrote "Disputations on the controversies of the Christian faith against the Heretics of this age," which many Protestants appreciated because of its balanced reasoning. He revised the Vulgate bible, wrote catechisms, supervised the Roman College and the Vatican library, and was the pope's theologian.
September 19: Januarius, bishop and martyr (d. 305), was bishop of Benevento during his martyrdom during the Diocletian persecution. He was arrested when he tried to visit imprisoned Christians. Legend tells us that a vial that contains his blood has been kept in the Naples cathedral since the 15th century liquefies three times a year.
September 20: Andrew Kim Taegon, priest, martyr, Paul Hasang, martyr, and companion martyrs (19th century), were Korean martyrs that began to flourish in the early 1800’s. The church leadership was almost entirely lay-run. In 1836, Parisian missionaries secretly entered the country, and Christians began to encounter hostility and persecutions. Over 10,000 Christians were killed. Taegon was the first native-born priest while the rest were 101 lay Christians.
September 21: Matthew, evangelist and Apostle (first century), may be two different people, but we have not historical data on either man. Since Matthew relies heavily upon Mark’s Gospel, it is unlikely that the evangelist is one of the Twelve Apostles. The Apostle appears in a list of the Twelve and in Matthew’s Gospel he is called a tax collector. The Evangelist is writing to Jewish-Christians who are urged to embrace their Jewish heritage and to participate in their mission to the Gentiles. To Matthew, Jesus is the fulfillment of the hopes of Jews and the inaugurator of a new way to relate to God.
This Week in Jesuit History
- September 15, 1927. Thirty-seven Jesuits arrived in Hot Springs, North Carolina, to begin tertianship. The property was given to the Jesuits by the widow of the son of President Andrew Johnson.
- September 16, 1883. The twenty-third General Congregation opened at Rome in the Palazzo Borromeo (via del Seminario). It elected Fr. Anthony Anderledy Vicar General with the right of succession.
- September 17, 1621. The death of St Robert Bellarmine, bishop and doctor of the Church.
- September 18, 1540. At Rome, Pedro Ribadeneira, aged fourteen, was admitted into the Society by St Ignatius (nine days before official papal confirmation of the Society).
- September 19, 1715. At Quebec, the death of Fr. Louis Andre, who for 45 years labored in the missions of Canada amid incredible hardships, often living on acorns, a kind of moss, and the rind of fruits.
- September 20, 1990. The first-ever Congregation of Provincials met at Loyola, Spain, on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the approval of the Society and 500th anniversary of the birth of St Ignatius.
- September 21, 1557. At Salamanca, Melchior Cano wrote to Charles V's confessor, accusing the Jesuits of being heretics in disguise.
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