21st Sunday A Ordinary Time, Aug.21,2011
Romans 11:33-36. Matthew 16:13-20:
Colleges, High Highschools, and University are preparing for the rush of
incoming students. Most of the educators are concerned personally about
their students and wish to help them to be in tune with the fullness of
their human nature and their personality. Their gifts will be important
for their own contribution in the classroom. To be fully human is desired
by all of us but educators seem to be more aware and intense about
mentoring others who come to learn about humanity in all of its dimensions.
These educators have integrity, honesty, truthfulness and compassion.
Educators teach in order to educate into values that will help people to
interact with one another. Not an easy task when one finds that many are
shy, or arrogant, or even unaware of what it means to be truly human. Here
are a few mentors, inventors, and educators from the past who still inspire
people today and educate them. Descartes taught that to THINK is what
makes one truly human and integrated. Aquinas gave an interesting twist to
the quality of humanness in that he found humanness to be RISIBILITY or the
power to smile and laugh. Our Hebrew inspired writers believed that the
best response in our humanity is LISTENING, while Irenaeus of Lyon pondered
the situation by relating it to God: "The GLORY OF GOD is humanity coming
to be fully alive."
All of these mentors and educators were right and had insight into the
desire of the human heart to be energetically and productively alive in
what they did and how they related to other human beings. Then we come to
Jesus in today's Gospel and he too enters the panorama of those who were
interested in knowing what it means to be truly human. He asks a question
of St. Peter that makes him think, listen, ponder, and probably smile when
he realizes that he has the answer Jesus is looking for. Jesus asks, "Who
do people say I am?" Peter has a listening heart and loves Jesus. He is
inspired by the Holy Spirit to say, " You are the Christ (the Anointed
One), the living Son of God. Jesus tells him that he did not get this
alone but was given it through revelation from God and from the Holy
Spirit. Did Peter realize that when Jesus said "I AM" he was touching the
identity of Jesus and that of the Father? The I AM statements always refer
to the LIVING GOD and Jesus is the Son of the living God.
Peter then was entrusted with mentoring, educating, and shepherding others
to identify with the revelation he received. He becomes the foundation of
the ekklesia (the Church), the keeper of the keys to the kingdom of God,
and the shepherd who binds and looses the sheep under his care.
We, too, as faithful followers of Jesus, believe that Jesus is the LIVING
GOD. Our journey and quest is bound up with the LIVING GOD. We realize we
are members of the Church and we know that in our Catholic faith this text
is the foundation for the successors of St. Peter, the Popes. We know that
Jesus' voice is heard by the successors when they have a listening heart, a
thinking and pondering mind, and when the give the glory to God in all they
do generously for others as chief shepherds of the flock or people of God.
They are given this grace in listening to the living voice of Jesus not
only in formal doctrines and traditions but in the very people they serve
who have learned well that Jesus is the Son of the living God and that his
living voice comes not only from the Scriptures but from them as the people
of God. In everyone of the statements, decisions, prayers, and encounters
that the Pope has, it is the living voice of Jesus that must be listened to
and pondered over for the benefit of all.
Fr. Faley observes, "The role of the chief shepherd must be seen as truly
pastoral, at the total service of God's people. Moreover, the chief
shepherd is called to hear the voice of the faithful in whom the Spirit is
also at work." (Footprints, page 555). Wisdom, courage, integrity, and a
call to bring about peace and justice are the dispositions needed to be
fully alive and capable of listening to the living voice of God, the
Spirit, and Jesus.
To be fully human we listen to God's words to us as he spoke them to Peter.
We then are capable of being true to ourselves, our neighbor, and to God.
When we live and love in this manner we experience who the Anointed One is
and identify him as the Son of the living God. We then are capable of
giving glory to God for we are becoming more and more fully alive. Amen.
posted by Fr. Bert SM at 10:22 AM
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