Jesus asks us the same question He asked the first disciples: 'who do you say that I am?'

Twenty Fourth Sunday in OT  B  2018

When Jesus asked his disciples “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter responded:  “You are the Christ.”  Peter was right, but not right enough.  Peter has the right answer, but not the right meaning.  Peter had hoped that the long-awaited Messiah was to be regal, powerful, and a strong leader.   Peter did not understand the words of Jesus that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected and be killed and rise after three days.

Unaware, as yet, of the true nature of Jesus’ identity, Peter tried to set aside the unthinkable notion of a suffering Christ.  Jesus was explaining to his disciples his upcoming suffering, passion, death and resurrection.   For Jesus this is what the meaning of Messiah is, and this is the straight truth.

There is a crossroads in the journey of faith for many of us in our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.  We encounter that crossroads when we personally have to deal with suffering and struggle.  Sometimes that suffering is of our own doing -- dealing with the weaknesses and the demons within each of us – or sometimes the suffering comes from having to deal with realities we cannot control or manage -- as in illnesses or death of someone close to us.

In the face of dealing with life’s struggles, what happens to the piety and the prayerfulness of days gone by?  In speaking to the first disciples, Jesus is saying you indeed will experience rejection, the cross, and ultimately death.  This is the meaning of discipleship.  What is our understanding of our discipleship of the Lord Jesus?

The Scriptures today are inviting to reflect on the meaning of our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.  The Scriptures, in a sense, want us to restart our baptismal commitment, how we are to live as the disciples of Jesus?

Jesus asks us the same question he asked the first disciples:  Who do you say that I am?   Like Peter, it’s easy to give the right answer.  When we shortly profess the creed, we are giving the right answer for our discipleship of Jesus.  But as for Peter and so for us, it’s not enough to give the right answer in the words we speak.  How we live our lives validate the words we say in professing the creed.

A necessary component of discipleship is stewardship, a spirituality of stewardship, the receiving and the sharing of the many gifts that God has given to each one of us.  If we knew and claimed the gift of God that is freely and abundantly given to each of us, we would experience a new Pentecost in 2018 at the Church of the Holy Spirit.

What we do and how we live our lives speaks to our commitment to make a stewardship a way of life for us.   In stewardship, we start with the basic truth that all is a gift of God  -- our life, our family, the people we love, the beauty of creation, the opportunities we have in life.  All is a gift of God.  Our stewardship response to the abundance of God’s gifts to us is gratitude and a desire to share what we have been given.  The heart of a spirituality of stewardship is living with an attitude of gratitude and sharing with others the blessings that we have been given. This is living our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.

In gratitude, we commit ourselves to a stewardship of time.  What does that mean?  In one word, prayer.  Each and every day that God gives to us, we seek to spend time in a prayer of gratitude.  This can be in the silence of early morning prayer; it can be reflectively prayerfully on the Scriptures; it can be praying the rosary;  Eucharistic Adoration; and, most of all, in the celebration of the Eucharist in which we give thanks to the Lord our God.

In the Stewardship of talent, we share our giftedness with one another.  In all honesty, some of our ministries are under staffed by the community of the baptized.  More of us need to be stewards in the building of the Church of the Holy Spirit.  This means we would like you to fill out a stewardship commitment card and place it in the second collection next weekend.

Example:   I know that many of your homes are beautifully decorated.  You have a taste for art and environment.  We invite you to use those same talents to enhance the art and environment of our Church both outside and inside. 

Another example: Our parish choir and are our parish cantors are composed of some beautiful and talented parishioners.  But there is plenty of room for new blood in our cantors and choir members for the 11:00 liturgy and for the other liturgies as well.  What if we had a youthful cantor front and center for all to see to invite us to enter into song in the first note of the entrance hymn.   Would if the cantor was even able to bring the ushers in the back of the Church to break into song.  Gabe, as we know, is a wonderful music director, but the music ministry of the parish needs to be embraced by more of us who are the community of the baptized.

Equally, there are examples in faith formation, social outreach, youth ministry and so on that are not just to be staff driven; they are to be parish driven. The meaning of discipleship of the Lord Jesus; the meaning of stewardship is that all of us are to get involved in some way.  May we make the commitment next Sunday to be more than pew-sitters.  We are disciples of Jesus who have been given the mission of stewardship – living life with an attitude of gratitude and committing ourselves to share our God-given talents.

Have a Blessed day