Friday, September 14, 2018

1Reflection for Sunday September 16, Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Mark 8:27-35


Gospel: Mark 8:27-35
Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ.”  Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”
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Reflection:
The story is told about a man who was praying to have a personal encounter with Jesus. He said to Jesus: “Please show yourself to me. I want to see you. I want to follow you, and I want to have this deep friendship with you.” 

Then in his dream Jesus replied by saying, “Would you be willing to follow the path of my suffering and sacrifice?” With a forlorn face the man replied negatively after which Jesus told him “So you will not be able to know me deeply and you will not be able to have a personal friendship with me.”

Just like many of us Peter seems to be averse to suffering because he reproached Jesus after Jesus told him that He must suffer, be rejected and then eventually be killed (Mark 8:31). Why are we afraid to suffer by the way?

Is it because we love the self-indulgent lifestyle of this temporary world?  Which would we prefer the many temporal pleasures of this world or deep friendship with Jesus? Deep friendship coursed through our many sufferings which are actually very bearable for the simple reason that Jesus will surely help us pull through it.

Many of us don’t have personal friendship with Jesus for the reason that we love this world more than Jesus. We do not have personal closeness with Jesus because we easily forsake Jesus in favor of the many temptations and enjoyments of this world.

What would it benefit us if we gain this world yet we don not have Jesus in our life? Nothing, its pure emptiness! Yes, we will find worldly happiness and enjoyment. But it is fleeting it will not last long and it will eventually lead us to sin. And then, emptiness and loneliness will set in.   Let us not allow ourselves to be deluded by the self-indulgent lifestyle of this world because we will not gain anything from it.

It is only through our faithful discipleship with Jesus that we would be able to find ourselves. It is only through the carrying of our own cross that we would be able to develop a personal and lasting friendship with Jesus. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

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