This Lord’s Day Weekend we begin a
four week Message Series called “A Way Forward”. Any journey, long or short,
is just a series of steps which we take seeking to find a way forward. Faith,
as is often said, is a journey and it all comes down to simple steps moving us
in His direction. We think there are basically four steps that the Bible
teaches us to take toward greater maturity in our Catholic faith. To kick off
the 2015-2016 year we’re offering an all-new series taking a fresh look at
those steps as we seek to discern A Way Forward. It’s all
about doing what disciples do and, in the process, finding our way to more
successful living
There are so many different responses to Jesus, the Messiah, and
many of them are firmly rooted in our religious tradition. This very fact
causes much of our misunderstanding and explains our inability to relate to the
person of Jesus. The people of Jesus’ time held various views as to who he was.
They commonly expected Him to act in a certain way, and almost always
misunderstood him. Even the disciples were confused by what he said, and they
too misunderstood him. Can we be so sure that we have the kind of insight they lacked?
Can we claim to understand him? Or are we more like the people in James’
community (2nd reading): people who professed faith in Jesus but who did not
always live it out; people who often spoke pleasant words to others and
said the right things but often failed to back up their words with how they
lived their lives—their good works?
Our focus on this first
week of our message series is to remember that our call is foremost to be “Of
God”. St James is saying as much in
today's Second Reading: "Faith
without good works is dead." It is one thing to make a verbal
declaration of faith weekly, to pray piously daily but if both are not backed
up by a lifetime of authentic service and charitable outlook then it becomes –
well odd! Our mission as Christians to build up the reign of God; it is quite
clear what God requires of us: to be compassionate as Jesus was, to take care
of the poor, to forgive each other, to welcome your enemy as a brother or
sister. In other words, all our religious behavior is intended to get us to the starting gate of good works. But it
must not end there!
When the journey of faith
seems too difficult, when we are prone to experience to fatigue before the sea
of human suffering, it seems that there are times when we really struggle to
believe in the person of Jesus. At such times it is good for us to remember the
wrenching struggle of the apostle, Peter in the Gospel.
Peter heard Jesus’ words about suffering and that is all they could
comprehend. Hence Jesus for the moment became a stumbling block for them. Jesus
knew their thoughts; He turned to them and sharply rebuked Peter in the hearing
of everyone. “Get behind me, Satan!” By trying to dissuade Jesus from the cross
and death, by trying to deflect Him from His divinely appointed purpose, Peter
was renewing the vicious temptations Jesus had experienced in the desert. Jesus
reacted to this TEMPTATION as He had done elsewhere to temptation with a fierce
and determined reflex: “Get behind me, Satan!” Peter, and eventually all the
disciples, must proceed to a deeper and holier understanding. Jesus wins for
them the grace to realize the folly and the glory of the mystery of the cross.
It is only then that they are truly able to say “You are the Messiah, the very
Son of God.” In today's Gospel Jesus, asked the disciples "Who do you say that I am?" Peter
then makes a great act of faith in Jesus as the Messiah. This is precisely what
Jesus is now asking of us!