24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading I: Isaiah 50:5-9a
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
Reading II: James 2:14-18
Gospel: Mark 8:27-35
Following the Gospel of Mark, he has shown the appeal of Jesus had with the crowds in His teachings and miracles. For several Sundays, we have pondered on the Bread of Life discourse taken from the gospel of St John. We come now to the crossroads, and the Lord asks us, “Who do you say I am?” He asked the question to check if the apostles understood who He really is. Jesus knew very well that the time will come, and He will leave his apostles to continue the mission.
Just like the apostles, we have read the Scripture, taught in catechism classes about Jesus. But we cannot just repeat what we have read or what has been taught to us. We need to have a personal answer, an answer which shows who he really means to us. For Peter, Jesus was the Messiah, and he will stick to his decision to leave everything behind to follow him. For us it can mean that our decisions will always consider what Jesus has to say about the matter at hand. He is much more than a teacher. He is a person who can make us do things we will not do for anybody else; He is a person we still listen to when all people seem to have other ideas, He is the light and inspiration for us whenever we are searching. We may have different images in mind about Jesus, and it may be lacking in understanding like Peter because his understanding of a Messiah needed to be purified.
Efren Tomas
In 2004, Father Efren arrived on Maui, Hawaii to be the Pastor of Christ The King Catholic Church in Kahului, Maui until 2012. He calls Christ The King his home because this was his first parish in Hawaii.
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