PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen
Sunday, September 16, 2018
24thSunday in Ordinary Time
“WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?” ++++++++++++++++++++
Ø Imagine J asking U question he puts to Peter today
Ø “Who do you say that I am?” Or, to flip it around, the question might be,“Who do I say that J is?”
Ø I answered it 1 way in the first twenty years of my life, but today I answer it very differently
MY FIRST TWENTY YEARS++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ø Up until I was about 20, I believed that Jesus was my Savior, but my idea of Savior was very limited
Ø It was basically what we say in the Creed each Sunday. He was Son of God who died for my sins
Ø He rose from the dead & offered me hope of resurrection, but with a big “but”
Ø Proviso: I had 2 measure up & obey commandments
Ø If I did, I would go to heaven and if I didn’t, I’d go to hell – often that seemed 2B more likely
Ø Those early years, I felt J as a judge/ disciplinarian
Ø My response were feelings of guilt re anything wrong I’d done & was anxious re the after-life
TODAY+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ø The past 60 years, I am in a very different place
Ø Many things contributed to this: education, life experiences & wonderful mentors and friends
Ø Today, I see J as God who’s become human 1 w/ us
Ø I now feel close & very + abt my relationship w/ G
LIGHT, LIFE, AND LOVE +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ø I look at J as 3 L’s for me — Light, Life and Love
Ø I see him AS LIGHTleading me out of darkness
Ø The darkness might be emotional baggage that leads me 2C my glass as ½ empty and not ½ full
Ø Or it ways of world exalting violence & materialism
Ø J as Light leads me out of these forms of darkness
Ø I see J AS LIFEleading me thru forms of death
Ø I see him as revealing the mystery that I intuitively know is true, even though I cannot explain it
Ø States 2 Peter suffering & death lead 2 life & res
Ø J is 4 me beginning, goal and the sustainer of my Life
Ø The 3rdL, is J AS LOVEleading me from self-diminishment to self-esteem
Ø From treating others as objects to treating them as persons like myself
Ø Though he calls me 2 take up my cross, J as Love also calls me 2 alleviate suffering of others
Ø It’s what St James is exhorting in R 2ndreading
CONCLUSION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ø That’s how I used 2 ans & how I now answer ?: “Who do you say that I am?”
Ø Each needs 2 answer this ? personally & to do this re R own relationship with God or Jesus
Ø It is a pivotal question on which R life depends
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment