Reflection for 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Once again, today’s reading talks about faith. Think about what our faith calls us to? Someone hurts us deeply and we are asked to forgive. A person we don’t really like is in need of financial help, and we are asked to be generous. A spouse betrays us in some way, and we are asked to give the person a chance to make things right. Our children make different life decisions than we had hoped, and we are asked to love and support them anyway. Someone commits a crime against us, and we are asked to not want to seek revenge. And we can go on and on. And we often find ourselves asking the question, “When did I agree to that?”

Peter could have asked that same question. After all, Jesus didn’t ask him if he wanted to be the rock upon which the church was built. He simple conferred the responsibility upon Peter. Nothing in Scripture indicates that Peter got to negotiate with Jesus or take time to “think about it.” “Jesus, I’ll get back to you,” he probably would have liked to have said. No, Jesus seems to have not even asked Peter if he would accept the responsibility. Or did he? Perhaps Peter had already given his “yes”, already agreed to do whatever is asked of him by the Lord. We find his “yes” just a few verses before, in his answer to the question, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answers without hesitation, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

This statement of faith was Peter’s great “yes” to God. And because of that “yes,” Peter would be expected to do his best in everything that Jesus asked of him. If Peter truly believed the words he spoke that day, then other things would necessarily follow. There would be real, concrete consequences of his faith in the Lord. As it turned out, those words spoken to Jesus – thankfully – were more than simply words.

But Peter’s profession of faith is not unique to him alone (although his role in the story of our faith is). His words are the same words we are invited to affirm, embrace and proclaim. And once we acknowledge Jesus as our Savior and Lord, the “Christ, the Son of the Living God,” we too are accepting whatever requests are asked of us, and whatever responsibilities are placed upon us.

We have a general idea of what following the Lord looks like. The problem comes when we are asked to love in specific concrete situations. Most of us have a certain, sincere desire to love and be merciful and be generous, and so on, but we get into trouble when that desire runs into real life. It’s not easy to do all that the Lord asks. I don’t have to tell you that. “Lord, I know I agreed to love people, but do I really have to love that person?” “Lord, I know I agreed to be honest and truthful, but will a little edging here and there make such a difference?” And so we often find ourselves in situations in which we’d rather go a different direction or stand on the sidelines and let someone else do the tough stuff. Sometimes we simply don’t want to accept the invitation and the challenge to clothe ourselves in Christ.

In those moments, we are once again asked to say “yes,” once again invited to remember what our hearts, minds and tongue profess. And each of these small “yeses” are really a participation in, a sharing in the one great “yes” of faith, that moment when we acknowledge Jesus as Christ and God, as Lord and brother, as teacher and judge, as healer and friend.

We share in building up the Church each time we are faithful to who Jesus is. Church isn’t something we go to once a week; it is an identity we share as members of the body of Christ into which we were initiated at baptism. We build up this body, the Church, any time we reach out to another in need and respond as Jesus would. In this we proclaim Jesus’ identity as the One who is kind toward all those who come to him in faith.

“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” May those words not be empty, but truly mean something, enabling us to accept every God-given responsibility that comes our way. Let’s always be willing to say, “Yes, Lord, I agreed to all of that.”

If you have a brief faith reflection on today’s reading that you would like to share, please send it to me at deaconruss@holyspiritunoh.org.