12th Sunday of the Year C 2016

DOCTRINE AND FAITH 
(Zechariah 12, 10-11; Galatians 3, 26-29; Luke 9, 18-24: 12th   Sunday of the Year C 2016)

    In today’s gospel story, Jesus Christ reveals his identity and the characteristics of anyone who would be his disciple then and Christians today.  Jesus asked his disciples: Who do the people say I am? The disciples’ answers revealed that some of his contemporaries were mistaking him for John the Baptist, Elijah or any of the prophets. Jesus pressed further to know the opinion of his disciples. Representing the disciples, Peter declared: You are the Christ of God. Peter’s confession brought out the identity of Jesus as the long awaited Messiah, the one sent by God the Father, consecrated by Him for the mission of saving the entire world through suffering and death, the only beloved Son of the Father, the Saviour promised for all humanity.  That Jesus was a prophet, as some of his contemporaries indicated, was not completely out of place. However, his type of prophecy was different from those of the other prophets. The other prophets, proclaimed the word of God which they received from God. They were rather repeating what God said to them. But Jesus spoke from his own authority. He was more than a spokesperson. Again, his messages were not conditioned by the times in which he lived, as were the prophecies of other prophets. While it did address the moment in question, it was the norm for all other times and determined all other teachings.

    After Peter’s confession, Jesus went further to specify the type of Messiah he was. Though anointed by God, nevertheless, he was not a triumphant Messiah, but a suffering one. He predicted his passion and death: The Son of man will suffer much and will be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes and will be put to death and will rise on the third day. Jesus aligned himself with the figure of the suffering servant found in Isaiah. Jesus’ prophecy of his passion indicates that he would accomplish his mission of saving the world by sacrificing himself, humiliation and disfigurement.

    Moreover, Jesus knew that as the Father sent him to save the world, he was to send people for the same mission. That is why he choose the apostles, the disciples and us (in our own time) in order to continue the mission of saving the world. He, therefore, earlier showed the characteristics of his would-be-follower, participant of his ministry.  He/she will have to be able to deny himself/herself. This means removing all forms of selfishness in one’s life, as well as sin, occasions of sins, concupiscence, pride and avidity for material things. The would-be-disciple of Jesus will have to take up his/her cross. This should not be exaggerated to mean accepting moral or physical pains passively or fatalistically. We have to fight vigorously to reduce physical, moral, mental, emotional or any other type of pains. However, we have to bear in mind that the cross, in one way or the other, accompanies us in our terrestrial life. We cannot completely eliminate sorrow and suffering from our lives. Therefore, we have to accept some of the sufferings with courage and unite them to the sufferings of Christ which he undertook for the salvation of the world. The-would-be disciple of Jesus will have to sacrifice his life to Christ and his brothers. Jesus said: He who loses his life for me will gain it. Whoever places Jesus’ interest above his own, thereby forgetting himself for the love of Christ, is his true disciple.

    One of the foremost disciples and apostles of the New Testament, a persecutor of the Christian faithful in his early life, understood very well the characteristics of the follower of Jesus and he tried to teach and live it.  In his teaching, in his letter to the Galatians (2nd Reading), he insists that through baptism, the Galatians (Christians) have entered into a new form of life, a life in Christ. During the baptismal ceremony, the entrance into the new life was symbolized by the baptized removing the clothing he was wearing and donning the baptismal robes. A reference to this ritual probably prompted Paul’s statement about putting on Christ as one would put on a garment. The garment was an external sign of a profound internal transformation. In this new life, former social distinctions are reinterpreted, and so the social, class and gender discrimination of the past have been erased. All those baptized into Christ were one with Christ and, thereby, one with one another. Indeed, for Paul, that identification with Christ in discipleship breaks down the barriers set upon society by the differences between Jew and Greek, slave and free persons, male and female.  The privilege often associated with political calcification is cancelled. Not even disciples can claim privilege. This was the kind of Messiah Jesus was. This is the kind of discipleship to which we are called. The corollary to Paul’s treatment of baptism, in addition to the cancellation of all class distinctions, is that all that were baptized were, as if one body. All are true children of God; all are genuine descendants of Abraham; all are heirs to the promises made by God. The Christian community is inclusive, embracing even those people the broader society has relegated to its margins. If these are true, why is that we Christians and particularly Catholics still cling tenaciously to the class distinction of osu and amadi. Are we really baptized? or baptized but not converted and transformed. As long as we allow this malaise to prevent us from becoming one in mind with Christ, growth in interior/spiritual life, our Christian worship, even our frequent reception of the Sacraments remains external and ineffective rituals. We remain in the level of babies, pre-nursery infants that are hardly able to do anything. In this weak situation, coupled with the fact that most of us Catholics stop at the level of first communion or confirmation classes, how can we be veritable disciples of Christ in our contemporary society. Let us therefore, ask Jesus today in the Eucharistic celebration to help us do away with all sorts of social discriminations and make us grow in intimacy with him through the personal relationship which the Sacrament of Baptism has established between him and us. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye