We must learn to wait on
the Spirit of God. As he moves us, we are led into deeper purgation, drawn to
greater self-sacrifice, and we come to know the stillness, the awful stillness,
in which we see the world from the height of Calvary
Mother Mary Clare slg
Picture the scene if
you will: you’re walking along a dusty road, going uphill in the heat towards
Caesarea Philippi, and Jesus asks the question, ‘Who do people say that I am?’
You answer, saying what you’ve heard people say, ‘some say John the Baptist,
others Elijah or one of the prophets’ Jesus has been proclaiming the Good news
of the Kingdom of God. Then Jesus asks, ‘But who do you say that I am?’
Then, quick as a flash Peter replies, ‘You are the Christ, the Messiah’. Jesus
asked his disciples then, and through the Gospel he asks each and every one of
us today the question, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ It is a question
which we all need to answer. Are we happy to say that he’s a prophet, but just
a man, to deny his divinity, or can we say that He is the Christ, the Son of
the living God. If we are happy to say this is this simply the end of the
matter or is more asked of us? At that time Jesus tells His disciples not to
tell anyone of Peter’s confession of faith, it isn’t the right time. Instead he
goes on to tell them what the Son of Man will undergo and suffer, how he will
be rejected by the religious authorities, be killed and rise again. Peter is at
one level understandably annoyed – he’s declared his belief only to see it
rejected by others, it’s worse that sad, it’s awful, why should Jesus have to
suffer and die? But Peter can only see things from a human point of view, he
forgets that the suffering is already foretold, as in the Suffering Servant in
Isaiah in this morning’s first reading, and Jesus’ proclamation will lead to
rejection, torture and death. It is sad, and awful, and very human, and yet in
the midst of the pain and rejection we see something of divine love. This is
how much God loves us, that he gives his own Son to live and die for us, for
you and me, so that we might live in Him.
It also
makes demands upon us: how we live our lives is important, as the Letter of
James is at pains to point out – we are to live lives which proclaim our faith
in word and deed. Jesus also invites those of us who follow him to take up our
own cross and follow Him. What Jesus does for us and for humanity is wonderful,
an amazing demonstration of God’s love for us, and he calls us in following Him
to bear our own Cross: to follow Him in living out that same suffering love, to
show the same compassion to the world, the same forgiveness. To follow Christ
is to experience pain and anguish, heartache and loss, there is no magic wand
to make things disappear, but rather as we try to live out our faith, stumbling
and failing as we go, we are drawn ever more into the mystery of God’s love and
forgiveness, we become people of compassion, of reconciliation, who can see
beyond petty human trifles, squabbles, and arguments, to the Kingdom of God
where restored humanity can be enfolded for ever in the love of God.
Opposed
to this we say the ways of the world: of money, of power; yet none of us can be
saved by our possessions, and once we die they are of no use to us, and what
then? All the wealth and power in the world cannot save our soul, cannot make
us truly happy in the way that following Christ, and entering into his suffering
can. God’s love is shown most fully when Christ dies for love of us, when he
bears the weight of human sin, wounded for our transgressions and bruised for
our iniquities. This is how the Messiah reigns, not on a throne, but on a
Cross. And when he comes at the end of time to judge the world, as he surely
will, a judgement of which the Apostle James is all too well aware, let us not
be among the adulterous and sinful generation of those who are ashamed of
Christ, but let us instead be in Him, conformed to Him, fed by His Body and
Blood, showing our faith through our works, conformed to the Passion of our
Lord and Saviour, giving of ourselves out of love, love of God and of our
neighbour, costly self-giving love, which gives regardless of the cost, gladly
and freely, generously, and in losing our life so we can find it in Him, and
truly live in Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,
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