+ The gospel passage today has two parts: Jesus
elicits from Peter a pronouncement that he is the Christ of God, when asking Peter who he says that Jesus is;
then Jesus goes on to describe what would happen to the Son of Man – who is
also himself. Jesus is the Christ of God and the Son of Man – he is true and
fully God, and true and fully man. This is the unique and irrevocable
combination that can never be repeated, for there is only one actor in this
great drama of human salvation: the
suffering, rejected, killed and resurrected God-Man.
After making this point, Jesus
goes on and says that if you want to find
the newness of life that will be available to you (when I am lifted up from the
earth), then you will have to deny yourself (like I set aside my divinity) take
up your own particular, custom-made cross and follow me. It is only by such
imitation, that you can share in the fruits of my labor.
In the first reading from the
Prophet Zechariah, we see the wonderful reference of God’s willingness to pour
out on the house of David (and his descendants) and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem
a spirit of grace and petition: there
will be one who is pierced, and the people will look on him whom they have
pierced (with a lance) and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only
son (as he will truly be the Son of Man), and they shall grieve over him
(because they know that their offenses have caused what they see before them).
But
there will be also in that place a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness
– a fountain springing from the heart of the very pierced one himself.
We, who are baptized into
Christ Jesus, baptized in that fountain, who are clothed with him, must
consider ourselves as fully united in him, in our mourning, our grieving, our
hope, and our joy that comes from total participation in the Death/Resurrection
dynamic that he inaugurated for all of us!
And so, I think that the basic
message for the day is JOY and GLADNESS: if
we die with the Lord, we will live with the Lord – not just later on but
right here, right now! And we will have something worthwhile – a good word to
share with other people – that it is possible for them too!
We are all thirsting,
thirsting – may we understand that it is the merciful God that we are thirsting
for and the bath of grace and life that flows from his Most Loving and wounded,
Sacred Heart.
Amen.
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