I am thankful and grateful that I had experienced at least for a while what it meant to be Church and in Communion with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in my Parish. What I mean is that under the guidance of a wonderful and visionary Shepherd of our Lord Jesus Christ all of us who were in ministry were formed in the faith and knew one another by name. We would offer each other greetings of peace and often a warm hug. The greetings of peace would be extended to all parishioners and visitors. And slowly as the years passed a number of us even tried to remember the names of the Parishioners who attended the Eucharistic Celebration regularly. So on any given Sunday we would know at least fifty to sixty percent of the congregation by name! There were no distinctions!
If we therefore proclaim that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour then how can we not be in Communion with one another such that we know one another by name? How can we not know one another’s families? Are we really One Body in Him? How could we ever think to lay down our lives for one another if this were the case? Can we say that we love one another as Jesus our Lord loves us?
Jesus our Eucharistic Lord, You died for our sins so that we may live fully in Your love. You give us the most precious gift of Your Body, Blood, soul and divinity in Holy Communion, so that we may be in full Communion with You and with one another through You. Let the bonds of love and familial ties grow as we seek to glorify You ever more deeply by our lives as One Body in You. Amen
First reading
James 2:1-9 ·
God chose the poor but you do not respect them
My brothers, do not try to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with the making of distinctions between classes of people. Now suppose a man comes into your synagogue, beautifully dressed and with a gold ring on, and at the same time a poor man comes in, in shabby clothes, and you take notice of the well-dressed man, and say, ‘Come this way to the best seats’; then you tell the poor man, ‘Stand over there’ or ‘You can sit on the floor by my foot-rest.’ Can’t you see that you have used two different standards in your mind, and turned yourselves into judges, and corrupt judges at that?
Listen, my dear brothers: it was those who are poor according to the world that God chose, to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to the kingdom which he promised to those who love him. In spite of this, you have no respect for anybody who is poor. Isn’t it always the rich who are against you? Isn’t it always their doing when you are dragged before the court? Aren’t they the ones who insult the honourable name to which you have been dedicated? Well, the right thing to do is to keep the supreme law of scripture: you must love your neighbour as yourself; but as soon as you make distinctions between classes of people, you are committing sin, and under condemnation for breaking the Law.
Gospel
Mark 8:27-33
The way you think is not God’s way, but man’s
Jesus and his disciples left for the villages round Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him. ‘John the Baptist,’ they said ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he asked ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the Christ.’ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’
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