21st Sunday Ordinary Time – Year A
Adapted from Father Bob's Homily– Franciscan Friars of the Atonement
Not many people are
honest enough or brave enough to ask the question in today’s
Gospel.
Just think about you
asking some friend or perhaps, more courageously, some enemy –
·
Who do you say that I
am?
·
What do people think
of me?
·
Or perhaps more
importantly, asking of ourselves – Who am I?
I recently read a
story about a doctor in a New York City Hospital who makes time to attend Mass
every day.
When someone told him
how impressed they were, he said he was not always so faithful.
It was a patient who
made him look at his life.
He said he would do
rounds every day with his students examining patients.
As they entered the
room, the patients would look intimidated and apprehensive except one man, an
Irish man in his sixties who was very sick.
He said the man would
always greet them with “Hey Guys”, as if they were a bunch of
teenagers.
Sometimes the patient
would make the students nervous, as one said – “He seems to look right through
us.”
The man grew worse, he
was quickly deteriorating.
The doctor went to see
him alone and the man opened his eyes with a grin and said “Well, took you long
enough” – like he had been expected the doctor.
The doctor did not say
anything as he read the chart.
Then the man shared
with the doctor a single remark that was half a question and half something
else.
He asked with a smile,
“Who are you?”
The doctor first
thought that because of the drugs that he did not recognize him, but as if
sensing what the doctor was thinking, he said, “Dr. Smith, who are
you?”
The doctor started to
say, well as you know, I am a doctor, and then he just stopped
cold.
It was hard for him to
describe or sort out what was going on in his head.
All kinds of thoughts
went through his mind which all seemed true and yet somehow less than
true.
Yes, I am this, but I
am also that, but that is not the whole picture.
The doctor’s confusion
must have shown because the man gave him a grin and closed his
eyes.
The doctor asked, “Is
there anything I can do for you?”
The man said “no, I’m just
tired.”
He died a few hours
later.
The doctor could not
get him or his question out of his mind– Who are you?
For years he had
trained as a physician and got lost in his profession.
He realized that the
man had taken away his degree, tossed it back to him and said – but who are you,
really….beyond the degree?
This story can doe the
same for us if we will allow it.
With humility and
honesty let us ask:
·
Who are we beyond the
facade, the front that we put up?
·
Who are we beyond our
job title, degree or trade?
So often we try to be
like the people we see in the commercials who are handsome or beautiful, well-dressed,
smiling, smelling great, hair gleaming, homes comfortable, and lives that are
stress-free.
There is no blemish,
lots of portrayed laughter and joy, and the good life abound, but that is not
real, that is not who we are.
Who are we, truly,
beyond all the externals?
Who do people say that
I am, is the question that Jesus asks in today’s Gospel?
How we answer that
question says a lot about us.
·
Does Jesus have any
effect on our day to day living…on the way we treat others…on the way we treat
ourselves?
There is a dangerous
trap that many people fall into and that is why we try to make Jesus into our
image and likeness.
Yes, we humans often
do this.
Many of us have been
guilty in one way or another, trying to make Christ in our own image.
We want him to be like
us.
We want Jesus to be the
kind of Savior that we want.
Sometimes we fail to
realize that we do not call Jesus, He called us to follow Him.
Yes, He has called
you, not only Priests, Deacons, or Religious, but you in a very personal way.
It was His cross that
was signed on your forehead and because of your Baptism you are a disciple of
Christ.
The question that we should
all ask ourselves is – are we living as a Disciple of Christ?
Christ is here with us
now in a special way, and someday He will come in power and glory to place all
creation at the feet of his Father.
But today, He comes
quietly, invisibly, and wherever you are, look for Him:
·
In the preached
word.
·
In the host at Holy
Communion time, look for Him inside of you.
·
Look for Him at home
on the faces of your dear ones
Look for Him,
especially where He told you to look.
·
In the hungry and
thirsty,
·
the stranger and the
naked,
·
the sick and the imprisoned,
·
and the drug addicted.
In closing I have just
a few short questions for you to prayerfully ponder,
·
If anyone is looking
for Christ, will they find Him in you?
Or do they have to look for
another?
·
If Jesus were to ask
you:
– “Who
do you say that I am?” –
– “Who do you say that I am?” –
What would be your
answer?
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