Luke 9: 18 - 24

[Melody]

18 Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?"
19 They answered, "John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen."
20 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "The Messiah of God."
21 He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone,
22 saying, "The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised."
23 Then he said to them all, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
24 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.

[Melody]

The priest who celebrated Holy Mass had something very interesting to say regarding this passage. Usually, we hear the whole "Peter the Rock" thing happening as an off-shoot of this passage & it draws so much controversy that most people ignore it.

But Fr. Savio touched up three points:

(01) He said that it's very natural for people to want to know how they are perceived. It's natural for us therefore to perhaps ask our family or close friends "What do you think of me" or maybe "Who am I to you?" i.e. when you think of me, what do you think of??

Knowing the way we are perceived by others, can often help us to make a change in our lives for the better, for often we do not realise that we may be something that even we don't want to be.


(02) For someone to tell us who we are accurately, they should have a close personal relationship with us. The crowds did not know who Jesus was because they did not have the relationship the disciples had with Him.

For us to know "Who" a person is, we have to know that person intimately, personally, closely. In order for us to answer Jesus' qs "Whom do YOU say I am?", we should have a close personal relationship with Him.

(03) And finally, on these verses:

23 Then he said to them all, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.

Fr. Savio told us a little joke:

Napolean once asked the French Army how many of them would be willing to die for France?
Everyone said they would & enthusiastically said they would.

Then he took out a feather & blew it hard in the air.
"Whosoever's head this feather settles on, shall die for France" he said.

Then he left informing them he'd be back in three minutes.

Guess what happened?

(the previous congregation guessed everyone had stepped back! lol)

What happened was that the feather was still in the air! Everytime it was about to settle on anyone's head, that person would blow it up in the air again towards another person...

funny? hmm.

[Seeker]

21 He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone,
22 saying, "The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised."
23 Then he said to them all, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
24 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.

How sobering to be reminded that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.  It's not very often throughout the day that I do this.  I usually feel my day is filled with avoiding the cross.  Jesus never said that being His follower would be easy.  It's hard to deny ourselves.  But the more I do it, the "easier" it gets.  It only gets "easier" in the respect that I become more open to God's grace, and Christ gives me the strength to follow Him.  I pray that it is not I that lives, but Christ that lives within me.  This seems to be the only way to be His follower.  Without Him, denying ourselves and taking up our cross is impossible.

In my opinion, we sometimes forget this hard teaching of Christ, just wanting to remember His Resurrection without remembering that he suffered and died for us.  Jesus calls us to "die to self" so that He may abide in us.  I believe this to be an important part of the Good News.  We will never find happiness unless we do this through our faith, hope, trust, and love in Him.

[Melody]

We will never find happiness unless we do this through our faith, hope, trust, and love in Him.

How true Seeker!

This reminds me of something else (though not directly related) - we don't trust God because He acts, rather He acts because we trust Him.