A reading from the Gospel according to Mark 8:27-35
The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously St Peter’s confession of Faith St Peter’s confession of faith Jesus and his disciples left for the villages round Caesarea Philippi.
On the way he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him. ‘John the Baptist,‘ they said ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he asked ‘who do you say I am?‘ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the Christ.‘ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’
He called the people and his disciples to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.’
Reflection
Friends, one of the world’s most famous Psychologist’s was the American Laurence Kohlberg, who died tragically in 1987. Kohlberg is best known for his theories on the stages of moral development. Though considered unusual in his era, he dedicated most of his professional life to the topic of moral judgment, trying to understand how and why people make the choices that they do. Kolberg came up with a theory that moved beyond the accepted theories of other famous Psychologists which stated that most people are very predictable with their decisions, choices and actions, so long as they don’t have what Kohlberg describes as a ‘crisis of vision’.
A ‘crisis of vision’ for Kohlberg is a life changing moment that alters our lives to the point that we are no longer predictable about our decisions, choices or actions. For Kolberg, how we respond before a crisis is very different to how we respond after it. The birth of a child or the death of a loved one; marriage or separation; a new job or the loss of employment; – just some of the major moments in any person’s life that can change our thoughts, our feelings, our decisions forever more.
Well, there is a ‘crisis of vision’ for the Apostles in our Gospel today. Up to now, Jesus has been for them a holy and wise man, a storyteller, a miracle worker. They are content in following the ‘man’ that they have come to know. But Jesus now challenges them to move further; to see, experience, and have faith in Him in an entirely new and more profound way. As Peter rightly says: “You are the Christ”. But this revelation changes everything. All that they had believed, all that they had come to know, everything that they were sure about, all of this is now changing and something new and personal is needed for them as Apostles.
This is why Jesus begins by asking them about what everyone else is saying – “Who do people say I am?” – before moving on to asking, “But you, who do you say I am?” In a moment, Jesus takes them from the comfortable and the accepted theory of the group, to the more challenging personal belief. To be able to stand strong together in faith, they each had to be strong with their personal faith in Jesus, not as a man but as the Christ. So, it is decision time! It’s commitment to Christ, or nothing.
Not being just strong in faith together, but being committed to our deeply rooted personal faith, is what our Gospel this weekend is about. A strong, personal faith can be very robust but still not something that we can ever take for granted because as with any ‘crisis of vision’, it can be severely challenged.
Our most recent ‘crisis of vision’ might be the Scoping Enquiry into abuse in Religious-run schools, and the revelations old and new contained within it. Added to this report, the airwaves have been taken up ever since with many recounting their own traumatic experiences in other schools going back the years too. We might have felt in recent times that we had turned a corner, only now to find ourselves back to where we started from. It is sad and difficult to hear. It affects us all deeply.
Yet, here we are, struggling on, taking our chance everyday to do good, to love God and our neighbour as ourselves as best as we possibly can. It is our commitment to our personal faith that helps us do just that. It is our decision for Christ that helps us to remain hopeful; giving us the grace to put our faith into action for the better. That conviction of who Christ is for us, that belief in Him at the core of our being but expressed openly in all that we say and do, this is what endures. It can be shaken but it perseveres nonetheless. We gather stronger together because of our individual conviction and decision for faith, our answer of who Christ is for us.
Let us pray this weekend for the grace always to have that conviction and strength of a personal faith. A faith known, loved and lived; but if and whenever tested, may God give us the courage to witness to our faith with even greater love; to witness as God always intended and expected.
Fr. Richard