Yesterday we celebrated the ‘Exaltation of the Holy Cross’, the feast which our Wiikwemkoong church is named after. The Cross that is the center and the key to our Christian faith.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks who other people say he is. His disciples respond with the names of different religious ancestors. Then he asks them who they say he is. They know him as “the Christ”. Jesus’ first question reminds me of the first half of life, and how we grow up to see ourselves through other people’s eyes, as we journey in the work to learn about ourselves. The disciples know who he is, as Jesus knows who he is. As we approach the second half of life, we too begin to know the depths of who we really are, usually supported by honest close friends, helping to lead us to this knowledge.
Peter, like many of us, only wanted what makes us feel good even when that ‘feel good’ is not real but temporary. Peter was not completely aware of what was happening, and wanted to keep Jesus with them. Like Peter, it pains us to see loved ones suffering and we want to prevent it at all cost, but we are often so helpless to prevent it.
Jesus had the option of playing along with the religious leaders of his day, or he could be real and honest. He chose to be real even though it meant death. Jesus knew what life was about, that we don’t complete our life and destiny if we remain false. Living a lie, or falsehood, is also a very real threat to us. In the last part of the Gospel, Jesus tells us what it means to be his follower, that is to take up our cross. This is a very concrete message of how we are to live. The second reading from James tells us that faith is not just words, but action is needed to accompany what we profess.
We are the Holy Cross community. We need to be real and honest, dropping the false image of who the world expects or wants us to be. Let us ask God to open our ears and not hide our face from insults, because we know that “the Lord God helps us”. This Sunday, we ask God to give us courage and strength to live with the cross because without it we are lost.
– Sr. Terry (Kateri) Beaudry CPS