Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection September 27, 2024

By CL

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Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection September 27, 2024

R/. Blest be the Lord, my rock.

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many

R/. Alleluia.

Now it happened that as Jesus was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

1. In the gospel, Jesus asks his disciples two questions: “Who do people say I am?” and “Who do you say I am?” Both these questions at the first look are matters of self-knowledge.

2. He wanted to know what others thought of him. Some also think of these two as Jesus’ way for his self-revelation to his disciples. He wanted them to know who he is. He wanted to reveal himself to them.

3. We need not rule out these two aspects of self-knowledge to ourselves and self-revelation to others. But we shall not stop there. There are more fundamentals to know and experience and live and promote. A personal experience of God is the most essential in life.

4. Jesus was not satisfied with knowing what the people say of him. He would also not be satisfied that his disciples know only what the people say of him. It is good to know what others think or say or experience of the Lord. But ultimately, what matters the most is what each disciple personally thinks, says and does of Jesus.

5. That is why Jesus poses the personal question to his disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” We can know about Jesus in very many ways. They are important and we need them. But nothing of these can substitute or undervalue the unique importance of a personal knowledge and experience of the Lord.

6. Knowledge and experience must go together. Only then, a person changes and life changes. Often, in the case of many, there is enormous knowledge about the Lord. We see many teachers, preachers, professors, writers, scholars and Bible readers and learners who learn and know so much about the Lord. But the whole point is, whether this search for and pursuit of knowledge help for a profound personal experience of the Lord.

7. Knowledge without experience becomes shallow and unproductive. It will not touch, affect and change the person. There are many who know so much about God but are least impressed and inspired by it to live according to God’s will.

8. A knowledge soaked in experience would place our life in the right perspective. Such an experiential knowledge would make us realize we need to understand the very nature of life. “Propriety and appropriateness of time” is an essential property of life. As the first reading from Ecclesiastes teaches us, “there is a time for everything”.

9. This will teach us to be realistic and accept life as a mix of divergent happenings and experiences. In life, everything is timed, everything has its own time-slot, and has its importance in the one chart of timeliness. This realism will also make us more patient and balanced amidst both the positive and negative, the favourable and the unfavourable.

10. This applies also to the ‘timing’ of his suffering and death of Jesus. The disciples did not understand that every opposition and suffering as well as praise and glory in Jesus’ life had its own specific time.

11. The disciples failed to understand this sequence of time that suffering precedes glory. They wanted to bypass the way of the cross and arrive directly at the point of resurrection. They wanted to anticipate the glorious glory before completing the battle itself.

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