“Who do people say that I am?”
Jesus
asked His disciples & He asks each one of us:
“Who do you say that I am?” Our
answer to that question is the most important one we will ever answer! “Faith is a
gift, a leap, it is trust in Jesus’ Word, it is joining with the apostles in
following Jesus.” [Adopted from C.S.
Lewis]
I want
to share with you some excerpts from a homily preached by Fr. Mychal Judge on
September 10, 2001. Fr. Judge was a
Franciscan & a chaplain for the Fire Department of City of New York
(FDNY).
On
September 10, 2001, he celebrated Mass at the dedication of a new firehouse in
the city and he preached, “Good days. And bad days. Up days. Down days. Sad days.
Happy days. But never a boring day on this job.
“You do what God has called you to do. Which is a mystery. And a surprise…. You have no idea what you
get on that rig, No matter how big the call.
No matter how small. You have no idea what God is calling you
to.”
When we
answer today’s question, “Who do you say that I am? If our
answer is Jesus - You are the Messiah, true God & true Man then we should
set our lives on a course to follow God’s Call. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001,
Father Mychal did not hesitate to go to the World Trade Center after terrorists
flew two airliners into its twin towers. He knew God called him to minister to
firefighters, the other emergency personnel and the people at work trapped in
the World Trade Center.
I pray
that we will never face that kind of terror & evil. Yet we should be mindful of our call to
self-sacrifice each day. In today’s
Gospel Peter is terrified at the prospect of Jesus suffering and dying; but
Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to come after must
deny himself take up his cross and follow me.” In our second reading St. James
reminds us to walk our Christian/Catholic talk, our commitment, our
discipleship to live our beliefs.
At the
beginning of Mass Fr. Marty prayed, “… O God …
Grant that we may serve you with all our heart ….” [Collect
24th Sunday] And, in our reading from Isaiah he teaches us to listen to God, to accept God’s help. We know that Jesus taught, that He would
suffer, die and rise from the dead. Then
He gave us the Holy Spirit to strengthen and guide us.
In our
Gospel Jesus told Peter, “Get behind me Satan” -
He was telling Peter to change his idea of the Messiah to the one of
the Suffering Servant that Jesus lived & wanted Peter to live. Peter
did that and now we are called to do the same. When our suffering comes Jesus
will be with us to help us, but we must be patient.
We live
a society of instant, quick, fast; God always answers our prayers, our
requests, but we must TRUST His answer and His time. The Jesuit Teilhard de
Chardin wrote, “Above all, trust in the slow
work of God. We are quite naturally
impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages ….
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading
you and accept the anxiety of feeling in suspense and incomplete.”
Accept
the slow work of God but with laser like focus answer God’s call to be His
disciple, accept His grace and “do His will.”
The
phrase “Never forget” has become synonymous
with 9/11 as well it should. But
remember we are called to “NEVER FORGET” that each one of us is a disciple of Christ
committed to follow Him without reservation.
For a
few minutes think about your commitment as a disciple to Jesus Christ, are you
following Him – His Way or your way?
Jesus
asks each day, “Who do you say that I am?”
May God
Be Praised.