Archive for September 14, 2024

Following the Messiah: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted: September 14, 2024 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
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Readings:
Isaiah 50:4-9
Psalm 116:1-6, 8-9
James 2:14-18
Mark 8:27-35

In today’s Gospel, we reach a pivotal moment in our walk with the Lord. After weeks of listening to His words and witnessing His deeds, along with the disciples we’re asked to decide who Jesus truly is.

Peter answers for them, and for us, too, when he declares: “You are the Messiah.” Many expected the Messiah to be a miracle worker who would vanquish Israel’s enemies and restore the kingdom of David (see John 6:15).

Jesus today reveals a different portrait. He calls Himself the Son of Man, evoking the royal figure Daniel saw in his heavenly visions (see Daniel 7:13–14). But Jesus’ kingship is not to be of this world (see John 18:36). And the path to His throne, as He reveals, is by way of suffering and death.

Jesus identifies the Messiah with the suffering servant that Isaiah foretells in today’s First Reading. The words of Isaiah’s servant are Jesus’ words—as He gives Himself to be shamed and beaten, trusting that God will be His help. We hear our Lord’s voice again in today’s Psalm, as He gives thanks that God has freed Him from the cords of death.

As Jesus tells us today, to believe that He is the Messiah is to follow His way of self-denial—losing our lives to save them in order to rise with Him to new life. Our faith, we hear again in today’s Epistle, must express itself in works of love (see Galatians 5:6).

Notice that Jesus questions the Apostles today “along the way.” They are on the way to Jerusalem, where the Lord will lay down His life. We, too, are on a journey with the Lord.

We must take up our cross, giving to others and enduring all our trials for His sake and the sake of the Gospel.

Our lives must be an offering of thanksgiving for the new life He has given us until that day when we reach our destination and walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: September 14, 2024 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. In today’s first reading we are reminded of why we reverently bow at the words of the Nicene creed as we profess our faith. “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven…”

For only our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ could save us from eternal death and lead us to life everlasting in Him. So great was His love for us that He took upon Himself the burden of sin in the world. He was lifted up on the wood of a cross just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

We adore You, Exalt and Bless You O Lord our God, for by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world. Amen

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First reading
Philippians 2:6-11 ·


Christ humbled himself but God raised him high


His state was divine, yet Christ Jesus did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave
and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
But God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all other names so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.



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Gospel
John 3:13-17


God sent his Son so that through him the world might be saved

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

‘No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven; and the Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost
but may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world,
but so that through him the world might be saved.’