24th SUNDAY (B) 16 September 2012

Fr. Gerard Kelly 

A few weeks ago someone gave me a book called The Face of Jesus.  It is a book of just over three hundred pages and on every page there are images of the face of Jesus.  It is a picture book, and it looks at the face of Jesus in Christian art dating from about the third century right up to modern times.  These images cover every facet of Jesus’ life: his birth, the beginning of his mission, his miracles, his Passion and Resurrection.  There is even a chapter with various images of Jesus from different parts of the world and different cultural settings.  Of course, the gospels never gave us any details about Jesus’ physical appearance, and all of the images we have were made long enough after his ascension that they were not done by people who had seen him.  Everyone has to imagine what Jesus is like.  There are two basic ways artists have done this.  One way is to use a stylised image such as we see in icons.  They are nothing like looking at a photograph.  Rather they depict his face using colour and lines.  These sorts of images portray a Jesus who is the divine Son of God.  He often sits on a throne of glory.  Another way artists depict Jesus is to place him in the world where they live so that he looks like one of the locals and belongs in that place.  He will look nothing like a first century Palestinian, but perhaps more like a sixteenth century Italian or maybe even a twentieth century American.

The face, of course, conveys a lot about the person.  In some images of the face, Jesus looks strong, as one who has authority.  Other images show him as someone who is full of compassion.  Some images show him suffering and in pain; others show him glorious and risen.  Still other images show his face looking towards us, and questioning us.

Today’s gospel made me think about these images.  Jesus asked the question, “Who do you say I am?”  In St Mark’s gospel it almost seems as though it was easy for Peter and the disciples to say who Jesus is.  Peter answers for them all when he says, “You are the Christ.”  He seems confident in saying this.  He had probably been listening for a couple of years as Jesus preached about the kingdom of God.  Peter had certainly seen his miracles; and he also knew the Scriptures.  He knew that God had promised a Messiah who would come in the future to set people free and usher in God’s reign.  Peter had an image of the Messiah as someone who would come in glory and who would be victorious in overcoming all of the forces that enslaved the people.

Yet we know that Jesus rebukes him?  When Jesus goes on to say that the Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders, to be put to death and to rise on the third day, Peter starts to argue with Jesus.  Peter had missed something in creating his image of the Messiah.  It is as though he had conveniently forgotten some of what the Scriptures say.  He had forgotten what we heard in the first reading, namely that the Servant of God suffers shame and abuse, that he looks ugly and deformed, and that he stands there and takes it all.  The servant does this because he trusts God to save him.  Here is the image of the Messiah: the one who trusts God even when there seems no reason to do so.  Peter had forgotten this; and now he seems to be getting in the way of Jesus’ mission.  That is why Jesus says to him, “Get behind me, Satan.”  Jesus is saying to Peter: do not stand in my way; do not stop me from fulfilling what I was sent to do.  Jesus is telling Peter that the image he has is not adequate.  Peter doesn’t want to look at the whole picture of Jesus.

But Jesus doesn’t just reprimand Peter.  When he says, “Get behind me,” he is also telling Peter to take up a position in readiness to follow Jesus.  Let Jesus lead the way.  I’m sure Peter would have been a little afraid of what he heard that day.  But he was being called to trust Jesus – just as Jesus trusted his Father.  Peter was being called to trust Jesus to lead the way to what God was offering.  We should not think too badly of Peter.  After all, he made a profound profession of faith when Jesus questioned him.  What happened after this was that Jesus took Peter to a deeper level of faith.  Peter’s faith needed to be purified.

All of the images in the picture book I received are answers to the question, “Who do you say I am?”  This is a question that is always before us.  The words and actions of Peter remind us that it is very easy to create our own image of Jesus, and that it can be an image that is only partially right.  All of us have a tendency to filter out those parts that we don’t like or that don’t seem right.  After all, what sort of a God do we worship if this is a God who suffers?  Where is the power of this God?  We have to face up to that question.  In doing so we purify our image of Jesus and we come to know the truth about God.

During this year of grace we are being called upon to look at the face of Jesus. As we gaze on him we open our hearts to the Spirit who purifies our image of Jesus and assists us to join Peter in making the profession of Faith.

20th SUNDAY(B) 19 August 2012

TWENTIETH SUNDAY (B)                                                                          

Fr. Gerard Kelly 

Every society and culture has its wisdom figures.  These are the people that we look up to, so that they might teach us about life.  While they are probably depicted a bit differently in various cultures there are some common features.  Often they are depicted as old, reminding us that the getting of wisdom is a life-time project.  Often they are sitting, reminding us that the learning of wisdom is a leisurely activity.  Wisdom does not really have much to do with learning a lot of things or knowing everything.  Sometimes the wise person in a community is not the one who knows everything.  The wise person is the one who has good judgement.

The contrast to the wise person is the fool.  The fool usually makes shallow decisions, decisions that are short-term and often impulsive.  In ancient societies the classic distinction between the wise person and the fool was seen in the way they dealt with their crops and the seasons.  The wise person wasn’t the one who may have had the largest harvest, but the one who made sure that after the harvest some of the food would be put away so that they would have plenty to eat during the winter months.  In contrast, the fool would eat most of the produce during the summer and his family would go hungry towards the end of winter.  The fool has no long term vision.  The fool really doesn’t know much about living.

The question people often ask is how they can learn wisdom.  The simple answer is that you learn wisdom by getting to know the wise person and learning from them.  In one of the psalms it says, “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.”  In the end, to grow in wisdom is to come to know God. God is the source of all wisdom.

In our first reading we had God personified as the wisdom figure who sets out a luxurious banquet of fine food and wine.  Once the table is set Wisdom goes out and invites people to the table.  The point of having such a fine dining table is that people will be in no hurry to run away; they will want to stay and talk.  The conversation around this table will be uplifting, as they listen to Wisdom speak.  Around this table they will learn about life.  They will learn what makes for a good life.  They will learn about true prosperity.  They will learn what good judgement looks like.  Around this table all the barriers and divisions will be broken down.  Food is always a symbol of life; Wisdom’s banquet table is a place to be refreshed in order to go on living.  But more than this: the food at this table, with all of its abundance and opulence, is a symbol of the fullness of life that is held out to those who know God.

There are hints in today’s gospel that Jesus is the true wisdom figure.  He has received this from the Father, and he offers it to those who follow him.  Remember that a few weeks ago we heard the gospel of the multiplication of the loaves.  Each Sunday since then we have listened to Jesus speak about the Bread of Life.  This is a long teaching.  Because the context is food and eating, we can imagine that this teaching is part of the conversation that Jesus may have had with those who were at the banquet table with him.

So what might we learn from Jesus?  His words are simple, but their meaning is profound.  “Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,” he says.  Some listening to him did not understand what he was saying – they misunderstood him.  The clue to understanding him is the reference to his flesh and blood.  The earliest Christians knew that this was a reference to his blood that was shed on the cross and his body that suffered and died on the cross.  So, in very simple terms, when he says that his flesh and blood give eternal life, he is telling them that the effect of his suffering and death is to give eternal life to the world.  In other words, his suffering and death have changed the world and opened it up to the future that God has in store for all of creation.  He is the source of life.  When people learn this, they have found true wisdom.

But it is not enough just to know this fact.  Jesus speaks of eating his flesh and drinking his blood.  This reference to eating and drinking reminds us of the banquet table that Wisdom has set.  Around this table we learn wisdom as we listen to the words that Jesus speaks to us in the Scriptures.  But learning wisdom is not just about getting knowledge.  Rather, we learn about life; we let the wisdom of God shine a light on our lives and the choices we make for a good life.  We learn good judgement.

The fact of eating and drinking tells us about how we learn wisdom.  We never eat just once; we do it all through our life.  The food we eat gives life and becomes part of us.  In a mysterious way we eat and drink of his flesh and blood that has suffered and died for the life of the world.  In this way, we not only take this eternal life to ourselves here and now, we also allow his way of life to shape our own.  This is the great lesson of wisdom that Jesus teaches us.  The way to the good life, to eternal life, is the path of self-giving in imitation of him.  We can do this, we can draw life from Jesus, by eating his flesh and drinking his blood.