Readings: Isaiah 50.5-9a / Psalm 114.1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 (R/v 9) / James 2.14-18 / Mark 8.27-35
“Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8.29)
Jesus asks his disciples this question in today’s gospel. Jesus asks us this same question in our prayer, when we are on retreat, in the best and worst times we have, and even when we act wisely or foolishly. I wonder what our answer is.
Peter’s response is unambiguous: “You are the Christ.” Indeed Jesus is. He explains to Peter, the disciples, and us that he will suffer greatly, be rejected by many, be killed on behalf of God’s people. And he will rise to live after three days. Yes, all this comes to be. This is the Christian truth.
Indeed Jesus is our Christ. We believe his death and resurrection have saved us. We follow him and his ways to love God and love others. This is why we dare to call ourselves Christians. Amen, we say.
Because of Jesus, we gather to celebrate Catholic Education Sunday as students, teachers, parents, and friends of our pre-school kindergartens and schools. Across Singapore, in our homes, we praise and reverence God in this Eucharist, and through Communion, we become the Body of Christ to serve all.
Today’s gospel reading reminds us that Jesus calls all to follow him and know life to the full. He also calls everyone to take up the Cross and know our salvation.
We hear this Good News in our Catholic schools too. In all that we learn and teach, in everything we experience, in every moment of growing up, we do so on holy ground where we are reminded daily of how Jesus taught us to know God and live in God’s ways. This helps us to answer Jesus’s question, “Who do you say I am?” He is God-with-us.
“Who do you say I am?” is also a question we ask each other in school. It is a question that helps us understand one another and become friends, regardless of race, language, or religion.
It is a good question to ask. The answers from friends and classmates, teachers and parents, and many others, are helpful. They enable us to know ourselves better, to understand our purpose in life, to consider God’s vocation for us, and to appreciate the good deeds each of us can do to make the world better and happier.
This is why I wonder what Jesus would say to you and me if we dare to ask him the same question back. “Jesus, who do you say I am?” Perhaps, Jesus would say to us what he said to the first missionaries who came to Singapore 200 years ago, especially those setup schools. That is, “I have chosen you; you are mine and you are filled with faith to do good works.”
The religious sisters and brothers, and their lay collaborators began our Catholic schools filled with faith. They believed in Jesus’s call to proclaim God’s good news that everyone should have life to the full and be saved. They gave themselves tirelessly and selflessly to educate anyone who came to Catholic schools, especially, the last and lost, the least and little. Our schools are God’s good works. They have contributed to our nation and the world. We are all better because of the Catholic education they began and many still continue providing.
Today I wonder if Jesus is saying the same to us who learn and teach in Catholic schools: “Remember God has given you faith, now ready yourselves to do great things for God.”
The Apostle James echoes this in our Second Reading. He teaches us that the good works we do are our response to the gift of faith and the life we have in God. Yes, faith and works must go together as one. They must because what is true in our hearts must show through in our actions.
If we say, “God is dwelling in our hearts,” as Jesus teaches us, then we cannot be Christian only with our words. We must be Christian in our works and actions. And what a gift we will be to others by the good we do! This is how we live our faith with integrity.
Catholic education helps every Christian in school make this his way of life by loving God and her daily manner of living in community by serving all. I know of people of all religions who tell me that Catholic education helps them live their faith with integrity too.
Today’s world makes it hard for many to live their faith with integrity. There are too many attractions, distractions, temptations, and different ways of living that can take us far away from God and living in God’s ways. It is hard growing up in our present times, especially in COVID times.
This is why I believe Jesus would also respond to our question, “Who do you say I am?” with the assurances we hear in the First Reading: that God is indeed near and God will help. The Prophet Isaiah proclaimed this comforting truth about God to the exiled Israelites. It is also meant for us: God is near and God will help us because we are God’s own, no matter our sinfulness.
Yes, God is one with us. This truth consoles us because believing in God doesn’t make our lives easy. Everyone’s lives have difficulties and struggles. We have things we worry about and things that make us sad. God is always with us in our sadness and struggles, giving us help in all our difficulties. We have all experienced how with Jesus, we don’t just carry the Cross; we are lifted up, many times because his resurrection gives us life in God. Indeed, with Jesus we are one with God.
This is why Peter’s answer to Jesus, “You are the Christ” matters. Though each of our Catholic pre-schools and schools is guided by the different charisms of their founders, they share in the one way Jesus teaches – to reveal the truth and the life of how every person is created to live with dignity and flourish in the common good as God’s beloved.
This is the noble task of Christian education where faith and good works come together for God and for all.
Catholic Education Sunday reminds us of Jesus’s good work continuing in our midst today. We give thanks. We also ask for grace. There is no better way to do these than to respond to Jesus’s question with this: “Yes, you are the Christ; with you, we follow.” Shall we?
Preached at Chapel of the Holy Presence, SJI, Singapore
photo: canossian sisters, singapore
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