{"id":1681,"date":"2015-09-13T12:12:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-13T16:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1681"},"modified":"2015-09-13T12:12:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T16:12:00","slug":"24th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/24th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

24th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B<\/a>
\nIsaiah 50:5-9a
\nJames 2:14-18
\nMark 8:27-35
\nSeptember 13 2015<\/p>\n

Jesus asks His disciples \u201cWho do people say that I am<\/em>?\u201d\u00a0 Jesus has been performing miracles and <\/strong>teaching.\u00a0 He knows people are talking about Him.\u00a0 This is what He wants because when we talk about Jesus we can come to a deeper understanding of who He is.<\/p>\n

The disciples say others think Jesus is John the Baptist.\u00a0 John was known for proclaiming the way of the Lord.\u00a0 Scriptures tell us that Elijah was taken up to Heaven without dying so some expected him to return.\u00a0 Could Jesus be him?<\/p>\n

Jesus then asks His disciples, \u201cBut who do you say that I am?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

How would you answer the question?\u00a0 Do you say Jesus is your friend, brother, healer, teacher, prophet, or comforter?\u00a0 What does it mean to say Jesus is any of this?<\/p>\n

Jesus certainly teaches us how to live but do we listen?\u00a0 Scriptures tell of many miracle cures that Jesus did to heal people.\u00a0 He also healed people by driving out demons.\u00a0 Do we let Jesus drive out our demons or do we hold onto our vices?<\/p>\n

We might call Jesus our friend or brother.\u00a0 What does this mean for us?\u00a0 How many of us have a brother or a friend that we never see or talk to?\u00a0 We might forget about our friends.\u00a0 Do we forget about Jesus?<\/p>\n

All of these, friend, brother, healer, teacher, are valid and truthful statements of who Jesus is to us but none of them captures all that Jesus is to us.\u00a0 What word can do Jesus justice?<\/p>\n

Peter replies \u201cYou are the Christ<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus truly is the Christ.<\/em>\u00a0 The word Christ is a Greek word that is the same as the Hebrew word messiah.\u00a0 <\/em>It means anointed or chosen one.\u00a0 People had long being waiting for a messiah to come to see them free.\u00a0 They wanted freedom from the Romans.\u00a0 Jesus brings us freedom from our sins.<\/p>\n

It was an important step in faith for Peter to call Jesus the Christ.\u00a0 Now Peter and the other disciples need to come to understand what it truly means to call Jesus the Christ.\u00a0 So Jesus begins to tell them about how He will suffer, be rejected, killed, and rise.<\/p>\n

Peter can\u2019t accept this.\u00a0 To him the suffering, rejection, and crucifixion would be defeat to the enemy.\u00a0 We know better (or at least we proclaim to).\u00a0 We know that the Crucifixion is not defeat but in fact a triumph where Jesus wins victory over our sins.<\/p>\n

How do we look at the Cross and Jesus?\u00a0 The way we do can say a lot about who Jesus is to us.\u00a0 We can look at the Crucifix and be grateful for what Jesus did.\u00a0 In fact that\u2019s why, as Catholics, we have Crucifixes and not just Crosses in Church.\u00a0 It is Jesus\u2019 death that gives the Cross its power.<\/p>\n

When we look at the Crucifix, we can see God\u2019s love and that means His mercy.\u00a0 How do we respond?<\/p>\n

Do we respond by being glad that Jesus was willing to die for us?\u00a0 We should be glad but what difference does it make to us?<\/p>\n

Does it motivate us to live more like Jesus or do we use it as an escape goat, figuring we don\u2019t need to worry about our sins because Jesus will always forgive us?<\/p>\n

Or does it get us to respond with love?\u00a0 Seeing God\u2019s love for us should motivate us to love Him in return.\u00a0 That means listening to what He teaches us, living as he teaches us.<\/p>\n

If we truly believe that Jesus is the Christ, what difference does it make in our lives?\u00a0 Our faith must make a difference.\u00a0 James writes about the work we do as Christians.\u00a0 The works we do show what Jesus means to us.\u00a0 The works don\u2019t make us Christians.\u00a0 Our faith does but if we have faith we will do the works that Jesus asks of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Isaiah 50:5-9a James 2:14-18 Mark 8:27-35 September 13 2015 Jesus asks His disciples \u201cWho do people say that I am?\u201d\u00a0 Jesus has been performing miracles and teaching.\u00a0 He knows people are talking about Him.\u00a0 This is what He wants because when we talk about Jesus we can come …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[133],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-r7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}