Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
A J Jacobs is a New York journalist. He is also a Jewish agnostic. He decided to do a radical experiment – a year of living biblically. He attempted to follow every rule of the Bible literally for an entire year. The way he ate, talked, dressed, thought, and touched his wife – he did everything biblically. He did it because he wanted to see if he was missing anything. He said later in an interview later that the hardest thing to do was avoiding the sins we commit every day: lying, gossiping, and coveting. But the greatest lesson he learnt was the power of behavior over thinking. Following Descartes’ famous line, “I think therefore I am,” we normally believe that thought influences behavior. But Jacobs says that the opposite is even more powerful. He said that most of us do underestimate the power that behavior has to shape thought. “It’s astounding. I watched it happen to myself. For instance, I forced myself to stop gossiping, and eventually I started to have fewer petty thoughts to gossip about. I forced myself to help the needy, and found myself becoming less self-absorbed. I even watched it happen with prayer. After a year of praying, I started to believe there’s something to the idea of sacredness. It was remarkable. Thus, if you want to become someone different, just start acting like the person you want to be.” Jacobs now calls himself a “reverent agnostic.”
Based on today’s scripture readings, let me make three points”
I Act therefore I am
Today’s scripture readings are about both “thinking” and “behavior.” Jesus rebukes Peter by saying, “You are ‘thinking’ not as God does, but as human beings do” (Mk 8:33). Peter has to learn to think differently. He will have to learn to think like Jesus did. But how does one begin to think differently? I understand Jesus to say that it is “learning by doing.” “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mk 8:34). Jesus was turning things on its head. Jesus seems to suggest that one becomes a disciple not by thinking discipleship but by ‘doing discipleship.” Perhaps, this is what James means in today’s second reading when he says “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” (Js 2:14). And then he concludes, “So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Js 2:17). If Descartes said, “I think therefor I am,” Jesus and James are saying, “I act therefore I am.”
Christian is a Verb
The scene in today’s gospel is one of the most poignant scenes in all of the gospels. Jesus has just told his disciples for the first time that his destiny is death at the hands of the religious authorities. Can you imagine the shock of the disciples? They had abandoned everything to follow Jesus. Their original intention in following Jesus was to gain something. And just when there was no turning back, Jesus not only tells them that he will be killed, but also tells them that their gain too lies in self-denial. If they must save their lives, they must lose it. Very soon after this teaching on discipleship, Jesus would do exactly what he taught. He would deny his own self, be submissive to his father’s will and lose his life on the cross. Today’, instead of Jesus’s question, “Who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8:27), what if the question was, “Who do you say you are?” How do we think about ourselves? If you and I say that we are Christians, if we say we are disciples, then, like Jesus, our actions must back it up. We must take up the cross! We must deny ourselves! We must radically follow Jesus! As James says, “Faith without works is dead!” (Js 2:17)
Healing, Renewing, Restoring
Yesterday, we had our parish’s “Morning of Prayer and Reflection” to roll out the new theme for 2021-22. Our parish theme for this year is, “Discipleship: Healing, Renewing, Restoring.” Notice that all that the three words that qualify our call to discipleship are verbs: heal, renew, restore. In other words, discipleship is a ‘doing.’ Discipleship is a call to follow Christ in action. Not only are we being invited to think like Jesus and talk like Jesus, but we are being invited to act like Jesus. If there is a situation where healing is needed, be an agent of healing. Just do it! If there is need for a renewal in our spiritual life, let’s just do it. If there a relationship that needs to be restored, let’s just do it. Today, this is what it means to take up the cross, to deny ourselves, and to follow Jesus - that we go forth as disciples who turn our faith into action by bringing healing, renewal, and restoration. Healing, renewing, restoring – in our families, in our neighborhood, in our church, and in our world – let’s just do it.
Today, from this altar, Christ is calling out to us in the same way he called his disciples. Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him. Let us do so as we resolve to think like Jesus, talk like Jesus, and more importantly, act like Jesus.
- Fr. Satish Joseph