I
hope you have enjoyed your week. As we get closer to the Harvest Bazaar we are
still looking for more bakers. The sheets are at the entrances of the church.
Please take a minute and sign your name and help us with some baking. If you can help on the day, please let us
know that too.
Next
Sunday, September 23, and the following Tuesday, September 25, are parent
meetings for Reconciliation and First Communion. You may attend either Sunday
or Tuesday.
Who
is Jesus for you - and what difference does he make in your life? Many in
Israel recognized Jesus as a mighty man of God, even comparing him with the
greatest of the prophets. Peter, always quick to respond whenever Jesus spoke,
professed that Jesus was truly the "Christ of God" - "the Son of
the living God" (Matthew 16:16). No mortal being could have revealed this
to Peter, but only God. Through the "eyes of faith" Peter discovered
who Jesus truly was. Peter recognized that Jesus was much more than a great
teacher, prophet, and miracle worker. Peter was the first apostle to publicly
declare that Jesus was the Anointed One, consecrated by the Father and sent
into the world to redeem a fallen human race enslaved to sin and cut off from
eternal life with God (Luke 9:20, Acts 2:14-36). The word for "Christ"
in Greek is a translation of the Hebrew word for "Messiah" - both
words literally mean the Anointed One.
Why
did Jesus command his disciples to be silent about his identity as the anointed
Son of God? They were, after all, appointed to proclaim the good news to
everyone. Jesus knew that they did not yet fully understand his mission and how
he would accomplish it. Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD), an early church
father, explains the reason for this silence:
There
were things yet unfulfilled which must also be included in their preaching
about him. They must also proclaim the cross, the passion, and the death in the
flesh. They must preach the resurrection of the dead, that great and truly
glorious sign by which testimony is borne him that the Emmanuel is truly God
and by nature the Son of God the Father. He utterly abolished death and wiped
out destruction. He robbed hell, and overthrew the tyranny of the enemy. He
took away the sin of the world, opened the gates above to the dwellers upon
earth, and united earth to heaven. These things proved him to be, as I said, in
truth God. He commanded them, therefore, to guard the mystery by a seasonable
silence until the whole plan of the dispensation should arrive at a suitable
conclusion.
(Commentary
on Luke, Homily 49)
Jesus told his disciples
that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and die in order that God's
work of redemption might be accomplished. How startled the disciples were when
they heard this word. How different are God's thoughts and ways from our thoughts
and ways (Isaiah 55:8). It was through humiliation, suffering, and death on the
cross that Jesus broke the powers of sin and death and won for us eternal life
and freedom from the slavery of sin and from the oppression of our enemy,
Satan, the father of lies and the deceiver of humankind.
Fr.
Phil Jones
