Confessing Christ as Messiah

Homily for Thursday of the 6th Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s Gospel, we see kind of the turning point in Mark’s account of Jesus’ public ministry. Throughout the Gospel thus far, we have seen that many have thought of Jesus as a miracle worker or as a prophet. Even some of those who have followed him since early on still don’t quite understand who Jesus is exactly. Just think back over the last few days…

Monday the Scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign because they wanted to know who Jesus was and what He was capable of. Tuesday even the disciples had trouble understanding who Jesus was and the Lord called them out for that. But today, the disciples finally make that confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

And then Jesus tells his closest friends and followers what being the Messiah will actually look like – it will include suffering; it will include being rejected; it will include being subjected to death. His death will be the only way for humanity to be able to enter into eternal communion with the Father. The Cross will be the bridge that makes that possible for us. And I think that’s difficult for His apostles to understand in its entirety, as we see with Peter rebuking the Lord. Peter fell into the trap of thinking as human beings, rather than thinking with the will of God.

What does that show us? I think it tells us that simply confessing faith in Jesus, simply acknowledging Him as the Savior and understanding that He died on the Cross for us is simply not enough. We have to let that belief penetrate our hearts and to truly change us. We have to let it challenge our very way of thinking. We have to let it totally and completely change our hearts. We have to let it change the way we live.

That’s not always easy to do and there will be times when the temptation will be there to think with our own wills rather than the will of God. So, we constantly have to ask the Lord for the grace of striving to understand more fully how He is calling us to live, to understand more fully what His will is for us, to truly appreciate who He is as Savior.

Today, let’s do just that. May we ask the Lord to give us the grace to make this confession of faith, recognizing Jesus as the Messiah. And may we ask Him to allow that confession to change us intrinsically, that we might always strive to follow His will, rather than our own.

Photo: Chapel of Our Lady of Fatima Seminary in Erechim, Brazil. Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe. Used under Unsplash license.