24th Sunday: "who do you say that I am?”

Isaiah 50, 4-9; Psalm 116; James 2, 14-18; St. Mark 8, 27-35

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The Church has pored over the Holy Scriptures for nearly two thousand years, and has received the Old Testament from the Jewish people, who themselves have loved and studied the Word of God from the time of Abraham around 1700 BC. Jesus himself interpreted the Scriptures for us, so that we might fully understand that he is Messiah and Lord. His Lordship is established by his victory over sin in his suffering, Passion, death and Resurrection.

"The Church remains faithful to the interpretation of 'all the Scriptures' that Jesus gave both before and after his Passover: 'Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?' (Lk 24:26-27, 44-45) Jesus' sufferings took their historical, concrete form from the fact that he was 'rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes,' who handed 'him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified.'(Mk 8:31; Mt 20:19)" (CCC 572)

Faith can therefore try to examine the circumstances of Jesus' death, faithfully handed on by the Gospels (Cf. Dei Verbum 19) and illuminated by other historical sources, the better to understand the meaning of the Redemption." (CCC 573)

Our openness to the word of the Scriptures determines how the Lord might reveal himself so as to nurture our relationship with him. Read and ponder the Scriptures daily, particularly hearing with care their proclamation in the sacred Liturgy where Christ truly speaks to us again and again with the desire that we might truly know him.

I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we "meet Christ in the liturgy".