By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
September 12, 2021: 24th Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 50: 5-9a; James 2: 14-18; Mark 8: 27-35
Faith has to be lived, it has to be manifested, be seen and shown; if it does not, it can be interpreted as dead and good for nothing. The Word this Sunday offers us a perspective of living faith on a daily basis, not leaving it in the air as mere doctrines and nor reducing it to performance of rituals and practices. It is a perspective that makes faith concrete and life oriented: the ACT, that enables persons to live their faith and manifest a living Faith, in an increasingly secularised world.
The ACT perspective of faith consists of Actions that make faith alive, Choices in life that make faith truly concrete and fundamental for daily life, and Thoughts that make faith something that covers the entire being of a person, determining the very life style of the person, and not merely concerning with some sporadic elements of the life of person!
ACTIONS: Faith has to be manifested through Actions of love
A Christian cannot be so for namesake. A believer cannot be merely someone who understands and accepts some sets of truth. A godly person cannot be someone who lives in an otherworldly atmosphere and refuses to get down to real life and its responsibilities. True faith has to be shown in concrete action. James today brings out this truth in such a candid manner.
Faith that is devoid of love is not Christian and that love when not shown in action is not real. Love is not treating people according your whims and fancies, it is approaching every person with a respect and reverence that he or she is an image of the living God. True love translates itself into commitment, a commitment for the wellbeing of the other.
CHOICES: Faith has to be witnessed to, through an absolute Choice for life
With the pandemic and its related troubles continuing to surround us, with the forces of violence all around the world making their ugly presence felt every now and then, with the dominant and hegemonic economic demons of the globalised world threatening to suffocate the entire humanity, we have determinant and definitive choices to make, as disciples of Christ. Isaiah prefigures in his own life and self, what it means to be a true disciple of the Son of God. Cross is not all about death, instead it is about glory: this is the difference between the perspective of life and that of death.
The world and its culture today is prone to death – Pope Benedict XVI called it the ‘culture of death’ and the present Holy Father, Pope Francis continues to reflect on that phrase. Difficulties are highlighted, despair is amplified, destruction is perpetrated and death is felt in the air. It is nauseating for a true believer, because we are persons who have chosen life, life in all its abundance. We can never choose to be gloomy and sad, pessimistic and given up! We choose God, we choose life!
THOUGHTS: Faith should be based on the Thoughts of God
Who do you THINK I am, asks Jesus. It matters a lot – what we think, how we think and why think what we think! Thinking is an expression of our innermost dispositions. How we think about others will define what we really are. That is precisely why Jesus asks us today, that all important question. But when it comes to the realm of faith, human thinking and worldly calculations will never make us persons of faith. It is only in adapting a God-perspective, that is looking at and thinking of all that is and all that happens, from the perspective of God, that we can be filled with faith.
Jesus had this God-perspective very clear. He taught the same perspective to his disciples too. That is the reason we see that he rebukes Peter for being contrary to God’s thinking. Sufferings, crosses, and sacrifices are nothing strange, if and when we put on the mind of God and develop the God-perspective from within us. Within the perspective of God everything has its place and meaning.
Let us pledge ourselves to an ACT of faith this day and in the coming week: to act in love, to choose life and to think like God – only then can we be truly disciples, apostles, and brothers and sisters of Christ.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him.