Sunday 15 September 2024
24nd Sunday of Year B

1st reading: Isaiah 50,5-9a
Psalm: 114 (116 A), 1-2, 3-4,5, 6-8, 9-XNUMX
2rd reading: James 2,14-18
Gospel: Mark 8,27-35

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Jesus is not conducting an opinion poll, he is asking his apostles to give an account of their preaching: “Who do you say I am?” (Ὑμεῖς δὲ τίνα με λέγετε εἶναι;). And Peter, in the name of the apostles, answers: "You are the Christ." You are the one on whom the Spirit rests, that is what "Christ" means, "Messiah" - it is the same word. But it is not yet the moment of the unveiling and Jesus imposes silence on them. 

This question is posed to us today and it can be the path to an examination of conscience or discernment: what do I say about Jesus? But we can broaden the question: what does my life say about Jesus? Seeing myself living, I who claim to put my faith in Christ Jesus, I who claim to follow Christ, what does my life reveal about Jesus? 

It is difficult to answer this question, but we can easily see that when we turn away from our neighbor, when we lie, when we withdraw into ourselves—and we could go through many other things—it is not to Jesus that we are bearing witness. We can perhaps more easily see how our lives may not bear witness to Jesus; but if we seek by faith to bear witness to Jesus, I mean if we seek by faith to live the gospel, if we seek by faith to receive the Holy Spirit who is given to us and who unfolds in us the charity of God, if therefore we seek to love by faith, surely our lives will reveal something of Jesus and our lives will say, “You are the Christ.” By faith.

In the Yellow Notebook which collects Thérèse's words in the last months, on May 15, Thérèse speaks of hope and says:

My hope is so great, it is such a subject of joy to me, not by feeling, but by faith, that I will need something above all thoughts, to satisfy me fully.

Saint Therese

"Not by feeling, but by faith"... We can take this expression to apply it to charity. It is about learning to love our brothers, not by feeling, because the other pleases me, because the other attracts me, because the other is kind to me or I don't know what, not by feeling but by faith. 

And if you have time, I invite you to reread or read manuscript C where, on many occasions, Thérèse develops this question of charity lived through faith in a very concrete way, which can teach each of us. 

Saint James tells us: you claim to have faith, but if you do not act in charity, if you turn away from your neighbor or if you smile at him without worrying about what he needs, where is your faith? How is it manifested? Show me your faith without your works; I will show you my faith by my works. And Paul will speak in the Letter to the Galatians of faith working through charity (Gal 5,6:XNUMX). But loving our brothers with the same love with which Jesus loves them leads us to live what Jesus calls us to live.

If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me » (Mt 16,24:XNUMX). In seeking to love everyone we meet, we cannot avoid the cross, because it is always poor sinners we meet and we ourselves are poor sinners. 

In one of his pious recreations, The triumph of humility, where Thérèse at one point makes devils talk to each other, Baal-Zeboub who addresses Lucifer says to him: 

Very few appreciate the maxims of Christ, especially when He says to His disciples: "If you want to come after Me, deny yourself and take up your cross." (Pious Recreation 7,3:XNUMX)

What is said here in an ironic way is true, brothers and sisters: we have a reluctance to receive these words of Jesus. This is why we must welcome them by faith, that is, put all our trust in Jesus: if this is what he asks of us, it is because this is the path of our life. 

And when we seek to live by faith, thus recognizing Christ, we are very likely not to find that we are making much progress, and we will do very small things and perhaps we will have the impression of having done nothing great. Not only is Thérèse certain that she has done nothing great—she has always sought to do only small things, putting all her love into them—but she is convinced that she will reach Heaven. "empty-handed". She writes it in her Offering to Merciful Love and she is aware that she has no work that is commensurate with God. Then on that same May 15, 1897, she says: I am very happy to be going to Heaven soon, but when I think of these words of the good Lord: "I carry my reward with me to render to each according to his works", I tell myself that, for me, he will be very embarrassed. I have no works! He will therefore not be able to render me "according to my works"... Well! He will render me "according to His works"... (Yellow Notebook, May 15, 1)

And here we have all of Thérèse's spirituality, which is to understand that the love of God and the action of God come first. 

But this does not prevent Thérèse from putting in the mouth of Saint Joan of Arc in her play Saint Joan of Arc fulfilling her mission a word that is ultimately his own: 

I want to take up my cross, sweet Savior, and follow you
To die for your love, I want nothing more
I want to die to begin to live
I want to die to unite myself with Jesus. (repeat)

Amen.