TWELFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME: YEAR C

First Reading zach 12:10-11

Second Reading Gal 3:26-29

Luke 9:18-24



“PREJUDICE IS THE CHILD OF IGNORANCE” – Dennis Diderot



This Sunday comes as a reminder of that longing for a liberator, freedom fighter to rescue us from this whole menace of constitutional crisis. Like the Jews who found themselves under the political domination of the Romans and anxiously waiting for the messiah to free them. This is how they prayed “Lord, send the son of David to reign over Israel. Give him power and strength to overcome the powerful and unjust dominators and to free Jerusalem from the pagans. May he wipe out all evil pagans with a word of his mouth; may the pagans be crushed at his sight”. This might be somebody’s prayer somewhere, somehow. With what is happening around us, we have this whole life experience put to the test before August 4th 2010 (the referendum).

Verses 18-19 of the Gospel of Luke starts by showing Jesus in prayer. Jesus before doing anything, he had to pray first. The question Jesus puts across to his apostles is quite disturbing: “who do the crowds say I am?” For some he is John the Baptist raised from the dead, for others, Elijah and for others still, one of the great people who, according to the teachings of the rabbis, were to appear before the coming of the Messiah. All sorts of everything about something yet not exactly to the point.

Today, we also find ourselves on that road. Everybody claims to brand Jesus according to what she or he knows. This can be seen in the way people are trying to interpret the constitution. Surely who do people think they are? We want to fix things because we know that we know yet we are simply ignorant. We are having politicians who are lording over the nation, the experts who command powerful armies in their created camps, owners of immerse capital, who condition country life with their money.

Verse 20-21 has another answer: “who do you say I am” Peter speaks out as ever as a spokesman for all. “The Christ of God” Jesus does not deny it, and gives them strict orders not to say this out to anyone. Why? The reason is simple: The words of Peter are exact, but the meaning he gives to them is wrong. Jesus knows Peter and his tongue.

How many Christians are there today who behave like twelve apostles: they repeat the words of the creed without a mistake, but they harbor in their heads ideas that are anything but evangelical! How many of us are still convinced to this day that Jesus will one day overwhelm the wicked, and will punish them for all their wrongdoing, showing them who really the master of right and wrong is or how many still think that to be disciples means that one day they will be more successful than others in life!

These are false hopes, secret dreams of glory that could never become a reality. The messiah is he who is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by elders and chief priests and scribes to death, and to be raised up n the third day. There are Christians; priests who are making Christ suffer grievously during this constitutional crisis. The Church says NO! but the heretics saying YES! This is a result of photocopy catechetics. These words are very upsetting: it’s not triumph that they keep on moving on, but to humiliate, defeat the church. How can the church take such absurd course, they say? Nonsense, our God is a God of life; they (Heretics) are not authors of life. But the Jesus of Nazareth has shown that he is capable of transforming the greatest human crime into masterpiece of love.

Verses 23-24 Luke calls us to be disciples of all seasons. To follow Christ does not mean everything will be smooth. But you are called upon to renounce yourself and take up your cross and follow Him. Don’t fear or be afraid to be shy of your faith, doctrine, authority, magisterium and tradition of the Church. You are the Church. Keep the faith alive.

In today’s gospel Jesus is assuring us that this is the only way to produce fruits that will never go bad and that will last for eternity. And to convince us, he is the first to give up his life to show us the real and concrete contents of love.



“NO PHYSICIAN CAN CURE THE BLIND IN THE MIND” – Jewish Proverb