12th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C - 18/6/2016 - Gospel: Lk 9:18-24
Affirmation
We all have some ideas about our self worth and about our ability and capacity but from time to time we enjoy listening to our friends or others who make comments about our performance. They are some sort of free feedbacks we need to have because the feedbacks help us to see how others judge about us and their perception of us. If the feedbacks are positive and similar in the same way as we think about ourselves then it becomes a source of healthy affirmation we all would like to hear. If on the contrary it is good to know about the feedbacks and that may improve our future performance.
The feedbacks are important because it helps us to understand what others perceive about our works and it asserts our ability and capacity. There are few areas we often hear people talk about us, and they are our roles and values and beliefs. Roles include responsibilities we have in life. Values are relationships we have for others and belief is something to do with ideology and religious beliefs.
When Jesus asked his apostles the question "Who do the crowds say I am?"
What Jesus had in mind had nothing to do with these areas we often worry about? Jesus worried nothing about His performance simply because world popularity or vain glory was nothing for Him. His primary focus was upon God's kingdom and eternal life and salvation Jesus offered for mankind. And that was the reason for him to come into the world.
The question of who do people say about Jesus is utterly essential for a number of reasons. Firstly, it had something to do with 'His hour'. The hour meant about His Passion and the glorification Jesus gave for the Father. The second reason was about revealing the minds of three groups of people on the matter of faith. The first group was the crowds who listened to His teaching. The second group was the mind of the Apostles and the third one was the mind of God and of Jesus himself. There were diversities of opinions about Who Jesus was in the first group. Some thought Jesus was John the Baptist; others thought Jesus was Elijah; others thought Jesus was one of the ancient prophets. Jesus found the right answer when Peter confessed that: You are the Christ of God.
We found this information in saint Mat 16, 17 who reported what Jesus confirmed to Peter: Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. Jesus then reveals his 'hour' when he said: The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day'. Lk 9, 22.
What Jesus said to Peter shocked them all but no one asked for clarification. This revelation helped us to see God's plan of salvation. Jesus revealed God's plan of salvation and of His mind and the 'hour' that was going to happen to Him- the time of his suffering and death and resurrection. The saying shocked the apostles but it asserted for the first time that His 'hour' was imminent.
The feedbacks are important because it helps us to understand what others perceive about our works and it asserts our ability and capacity. There are few areas we often hear people talk about us, and they are our roles and values and beliefs. Roles include responsibilities we have in life. Values are relationships we have for others and belief is something to do with ideology and religious beliefs.
When Jesus asked his apostles the question "Who do the crowds say I am?"
What Jesus had in mind had nothing to do with these areas we often worry about? Jesus worried nothing about His performance simply because world popularity or vain glory was nothing for Him. His primary focus was upon God's kingdom and eternal life and salvation Jesus offered for mankind. And that was the reason for him to come into the world.
The question of who do people say about Jesus is utterly essential for a number of reasons. Firstly, it had something to do with 'His hour'. The hour meant about His Passion and the glorification Jesus gave for the Father. The second reason was about revealing the minds of three groups of people on the matter of faith. The first group was the crowds who listened to His teaching. The second group was the mind of the Apostles and the third one was the mind of God and of Jesus himself. There were diversities of opinions about Who Jesus was in the first group. Some thought Jesus was John the Baptist; others thought Jesus was Elijah; others thought Jesus was one of the ancient prophets. Jesus found the right answer when Peter confessed that: You are the Christ of God.
We found this information in saint Mat 16, 17 who reported what Jesus confirmed to Peter: Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. Jesus then reveals his 'hour' when he said: The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day'. Lk 9, 22.
What Jesus said to Peter shocked them all but no one asked for clarification. This revelation helped us to see God's plan of salvation. Jesus revealed God's plan of salvation and of His mind and the 'hour' that was going to happen to Him- the time of his suffering and death and resurrection. The saying shocked the apostles but it asserted for the first time that His 'hour' was imminent.
Written by Fr Vũđình Tường
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia