Who do you say I am?

    12th Sunday in Ordinary Time 19 June 2016

First reading
Zechariah 12:10-11,13:1

It is the Lord who speaks: ‘Over the House of David and the citizens of Jerusalem I will pour out a spirit of kindness and prayer. They will look on the one whom they have pierced; they will mourn for him as for an only son, and weep for him as people weep for a first-born child. When that day comes, there will be great mourning in Judah, like the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. When that day comes, a fountain will be opened for the House of David and the citizens of Jerusalem, for sin and impurity.’

 

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 62:2-6,8-9

Second reading
Galatians 3:26-29

You are, all of you, sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. All baptised in Christ, you have all clothed yourselves in Christ, and there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Merely by belonging to Christ you are the posterity of Abraham, the heirs he was promised.

 

Gospel	Luke  9:18-24

One day when Jesus was praying alone in the presence of his disciples he put this question to them, ‘Who do the crowds say I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist; others Elijah; and others say one of the ancient prophets come back to life.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ It was Peter who spoke up. ‘The Christ of God’ he said. But he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone anything about this.

  ‘The Son of Man’ he said ‘is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’

  Then to all he said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it.’

  Reflection
By Bernard M. Borja  

Sometime 6 years ago, I had an experience in a beach where I got drowned trying to save two people from drowning. I was with my friends swimming at the beach, when I heard someone nearby trying to shout for help but could not because the waters keep on filling her mouth everytime she does. The beach was said to be unstable because a shallow part can lead to deeper waters in one step but no one knows where that part could be in any day. The people were only advised not to go beyond 2 meters from the shore.

For me, I thought it would never be a problem because I know how to swim and some basics of surviving in the water. So, when I came near the two people who looked exhausted from trying to keep their heads up, I reached out my arm for them to take. My plan was to guide them to the shallow part. But out of panic, they put their arms on my neck trying to get up my back. Their weight pushed me down deep and I was not able to breathe. They released me as I got deeper so I was able to go up again to get some air. But as I ascend, they once again got up my back trying to save themselves without thinking that I, too, was almost drowning because of what they were doing. I was shouting to them, “Wag kayo magpanic! Wag nyo ako sampahan! (Don’t panic! Get off my back!)” But to no avail, I went down again. Then, I passed out. The next thing I remember, I was on the sand coughing out sea water while I was lying on my side at the shore.

I was wondering what else were they thinking when I decided to come near them and try to save them from drowning. Maybe they’re thinking (no judgements. Just assuming this), “Oh there is our savior! We don’t need to do anything. We’ll just get up his back and let him take care of us going to the shore. We don’t need to worry because he knows how to swim.” I was asking myself, “Do I really need to drown myself just to save some people from drowning?” 

Reading the Gospel today, I realized that Jesus was telling His disciples to also do something for them to be saved. As He tells them about His coming suffering, He’s giving the disciples a heads up to take their sufferings as well and join them with Jesus’ suffering to save mankind.

When I was drowning, I remember I almost gave up trying to save the two strangers. I can actually choose to swim away, and let the others who heard us, save them from drowning. But then, I realized that people cannot think straight at the moment of their suffering. Sometimes, people trust too much and give up all their troubles to God without trying to do anything. Relying on everything that will happen. But Jesus reminds us to take up our cross. Of course we must not lose our trust in God, but we have to make our contribution to be saved. It’s about working with Jesus, not just Jesus alone working.

Jesus also reminds us on how to deal with difficulties we encounter today. Like one priest was saying, let your suffering be one with the cross of Jesus Christ. We may not see a miracle immediately but it will make a difference on how we look at our hardships. That we are not alone and that Jesus is always with us.

PRAYER:

Dear God, we pray that as we put our trust in You, we let the suffering of Jesus Christ Your Son be ours too. We join whatever suffering we have to the cross of Christ to pray for those who suffer more than us. We pray for hope for those who are almost giving up. We pray for those who are trying to find meaning and worth as they give their all for the sake of less fortunate people. We also pray for fathers for their love and inspiration to our families. May You bless them more as they give their all to us and make us feel that Jesus is with them in working for our families.

In Jesus’ Name we pray,

AMEN.