24th Sunday 2024
Isaiah 50:5-9; James 2:14-18; Mark 8:27-35
Ouch! There’s not much for our comfort today, is there? We begin with one of the Songs of the Suffering Servant from Deutero-Isaiah (Second Isaiah) a fairly clear prophecy of the sufferings of Jesus: “I made no resistance, nor did I turn away. I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard. I did not cover my face against insult and spittle”. That prophecy was to be fulfilled in practically every detail.
Then we have St. James warning us that faith without good works is dead. If faith is not “fruitful in good works” a phrase which you may remember from the old Prayer for England, then it isn’t faith at all: it is pretence. There we have a good basis for an examination of conscience: does my faith, my worship of God, have practical consequences? Does it lead me to love and serve my brothers and sisters? If not, we shall find ourselves in the position of the “Lord Lord” people whom Jesus dismisses in the Gospels, saying “I never knew you. Get away from me, you evil people”.
Finally, we have the Gospel in which Jesus prophesies His Passion, and then proceeds to demand of us a renunciation of self, the taking up of our Cross, and the following of Him. Failure to do that will have eternal consequences.
Even St. Peter receives a brutal shock. According to St. Matthew, Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Christ results in his being named as the rock on which the Church is to be built. He is to lead the Church, and he seizes the first opportunity to demonstrate what a good leader he will be. When the Lord and Master speaks of His Passion and Death, Peter takes Him in hand.
Notice how Peter takes Our Lord to one side. He is in charge now, and a quiet word from him will put things right. Jesus needn’t worry: His rock, Peter, will make sure that these things don’t happen. WALLOP! Instead of thanks, Peter hears “Get behind me, Satan!” So much for his outstanding leadership.
What is actually happening here? You may recall that, after the temptations in the wilderness, the devil left, “to return at the appointed time”. This is one of those appointed times. Satan is using Peter’s voice, the voice of a friend, to tempt the Lord to find an escape route. What is more seductive, when we are faced with something which we would prefer to avoid, than a trusted friend saying to us “No, you don’t have to go through with it”?
Jesus feels the force of the temptation. “Turning, and seeing His disciples” says Mark. Our Lord is turning away from the voice of the tempter, and in doing so He sees the disciples, and knows that He must go ahead, must undergo His Passion, and He rejects Satan’s temptation, recognising it for what it is. This is not Peter speaking: it is Satan speaking through him. Jesus is not calling Peter Satan: He is calling out Satan who is using Peter.
Here, incidentally, we see the meaning and the limitations of papal infallibility. In proclaiming the Messiahship and the divine paternity of Jesus, Peter was allowing God to speak through him: “It was not flesh and blood which revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven”. When the Father speaks through Peter and his successors, they are infallible: when that divine inspiration is not at work, when they think “not in God’s way but man’s” that infallibility is absent. Allegedly, there were a couple of occasions when Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, pointed out to St. John Paul II that he would not be able to claim infallibility for his planned pronouncements.
Jesus now re-commits Himself to Hs mission from the Father, which will entail profound suffering, death, and finally, resurrection. Then He has a mission for each one of us: a call to renounce self, to take up the Cross, to follow the Master. Is this indeed a message of doom and gloom?
There have been periods in the history of the Church when it has been interpreted in those terms. Think about it, though! What it amounts to is a call to discover our true selves. We were not created to be selfish: we were created in the image and likeness of God. In the Incarnation, God reveals the implications of this. To be created in the image and likeness of God is to be Christ-like, to be rooted in love of God and others, to grow daily closer to Christ. This will involve the Cross, but it won’t matter, because, in accepting whatever Cross God gives us, we shall become more authentic, more true to ourselves, more the people we were created and called to be.
Is it true that today’s readings tell us naught for our comfort? No, they tell us how to be our truest, fullest selves.
