Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, Vigil
September 14, 2024
To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.14.24_Landry_ConCon.mp3
The following text guided the homily:
* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday, when we will eavesdrop and participate in perhaps the most pivotal dialogue in the Gospel, when Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?”
* In response to the first question, the poll of what other people were saying, the disciples were eager to reply. They informed him that the people were numbering Jesus among the greatest Jewish heroes of all time, like the prophets Elijah and Jeremiah, and, more recently, John the Baptist. But Jesus wasn’t going to stop at that preliminary question. First, because it wasn’t enough to rest on what the surveys said, to rely on what others believed, despite the exalted circles into which people were placing Jesus. Second, because the assessments weren’t true. Jesus was far greater than Elijah, Jeremiah and John. He was greater than Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon. Third, because Jesus didn’t want those with him merely to remain “fans” or “admirers” of him because that would not set them on the path on which he had come into the world to lead them.
* And so he asked the second question, “Who do you say that I am?” All but one of the disciples remained mute. It was easy to communicate what the surveys said, but to put oneself on the line, to make a personal, public confession, required courage and conviction. I have always been amazed that Nathaniel, a.k.a. Bartholomew, didn’t say anything, since the first time he met Jesus, he cried out that Jesus was the “Son of God” and “King of Israel,” but for some reason now he lacked the chutzpah to say it again. Likewise many of the apostles by this point were trying to jockey to be the greatest in the messianic administration they expected Jesus to inaugurate, but none had the courage to speak up. Simon Peter, however, put out into the deep. God the Father had led him to recognize that Jesus was indeed far greater than what the others were saying, and he had the guts to be the first to say it. “You are the Christ!,” he declared. Christ, the Greek word for Messiah, communicated that Jesus was the long awaited one foretold by all the prophets. In St. Matthew’s version of the scene, he recalls Peter’s also confessing Jesus to be more than the Messiah, but the very own Son of God. To make such an admission was to bring into the foreground a whole series of expectations. The Messiah was to be the one who would bring back the Kingdom of David, who would kick out all foreign powers, who would return Israel to prominence.
* But lest they jump to that confusion, Jesus, as soon as Peter had enunciated his true identity, began to teach them what type of Messiah he would be, how he would inaugurate his kingdom, and how they were share in and announce it. It blew their mind. Rather than uniting the Jews to defeat and expel the Romans, rather than leading the twelve tribes to triumph, he would instead suffer greatly, be rejected by the chief priests, the scribes and the elders and be killed. Jesus told them all of this, St. Mark tells us, “openly,” so that they would know it clearly. To get a sense of their shock, it would be like someone who had just won a Presidential election in his victory speech saying that rather than lead his supporters...
Episode: https://catholicpreaching.com/wp/twenty-fourth-sunday-in-ordinary-time-b-conversations-with-consequences-podcast-september-14-2024/
Podcast: https://catholicpreaching.com/wp/category/audio-homily/podcast/
