19 June 2016 – 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Luke 9:18-22

     Jesus asks his disciples a very important question in the Gospel today, a question that all of us as his disciples need to answer.  A question like this is important to our identity and very well-being.  Sometime it is as important to know what questions to ask as it is to know the answers.  This is illustrated by a story that is told of a missionary who was serving in the jungles of South America.  This missionary was not accustomed to the hot tropical weather, so he was tempted to cool off with a swim in the river that went through his village.  However, he had heard that there were piranhas in the river.  He was afraid that the piranhas would bite him if he got into the river.  He asked the local villagers if there were piranhas in the river and if they would bite him, but the locals assured him that the piranhas would only bite people when they were swimming in large schools of fish, which was not the case in this part of the river.  Every day the missionary swam in the river, cooling off from the hot tropical climate.  His daily swims helped him survived this challenging missionary work in the jungle.  Some months later, the missionary heard that a local fisherman had fallen out of his boat while fishing and his body had not been found. Frantic, the missionary asked the villagers if perhaps the piranhas had eaten up this fisherman.   Again, the villagers assured him that the piranhas did not swim in schools in this part of the river, and thus would not bite people or harm them.  Finally, the missionary decided to ask why there were not any schools of piranhas in this part of the river.  Very nonchalantly, the villagers replied, the piranhas never swim in schools of fish where there are a bunch of alligators in the river. The missionary was seized with terror, realizing that he had been swimming in a river full of alligators.  Yes, if we don’t ask the right questions, the consequences can be very dire indeed. 

      There are a lot of spiritual questions we can ask in our lives, but none is more important that the one we hear in the Gospel today:  “Who do I say that Jesus is?”  We can believe a lot of things about Jesus.  We can believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary.  We can believe that Jesus was a great teacher who proclaim the Gospel of the Lord to the world and that he helps us live according the values God wants us to live.   We can believe that the stories about Jesus in the Bible are truly the Word of God. We can believe that Jesus performed great miracles and healed a lot of people.  But do we truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is both true God and true man?  Do we truly live out that reality in our lives each day as his disciple?

      We can say that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Messiah, but perhaps our concept of what that means needs to be opened up and expanded.  Through the way God’s holy word speaks to us, through the way the Eucharist feeds us, how the devotions and sacraments of our faith touch our lives and touch our hearts, all of this can have an impact in who we say Jesus is.  Jesus ended up being a Messiah that was very different from what the people of Ancient Israel were expecting.   They expected a Messiah who would be a great military and political leader just like King David.  They thought that the Messiah who kick out the Romans who were ruling their country, that he would make Israel a great power in the world, that he would bring them great honor, wealth, and prestige.  Jesus, however, came as a servant, not a military leader.  He asks us to serve on our journey of faith with him as our example.

      Pope Francis and Bishop Kopacz and our other Church leaders help us in expanding our view of what our faith calls us to do, of who Jesus should be in our lives.  In the bulletin this week we have the statement that Bishop Kopacz made in response to the shootings in Orlando this past weekend.   Bishop Kopacz stated that in the face of the evil we saw in that mass shooting, we must continue to proclaim the dignity of human life as embodied in our Church’s Gospel of Life, to respond to such acts not out of fear or retribution or revenge, but out of the love and compassion and peace of Christ.  Pope Francis has also stimulated and challenged us in a lot of ways in the time he has been Pope.  As a priest, I take to heart what he says and I reflect upon the true meaning of his statements in the context of our lived reality, which is sometimes a very challenging task.  This weekend is the one year anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si, which  looked at the protection and stewardship of our environment.  Pope Francis asks us in this encyclical to look at the type of world that we want to leave to our children and he urges humanity to work together to solve the most pressing problems of inequality, injustice and environmental destruction.  May the words of this prayer written by Pope Francis in Laudato Si inspire us to make the world a better place, a place we can leave to our children and to future generations:

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures.

You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

O God of the poor, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it,

that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature

as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day.

Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace. AMEN.