Upon this Rock

August 24, 2008

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

I will clothe him with your robe, and gird him with your sash, and give over to him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. Isaiah 22:21

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! Romans 11:33

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. Matthew 16:15-17

Piety

"How great is the glory of the LORD!" The LORD is on high, but cares for the lowly and knows the proud from afar. Though I walk in the midst of dangers, you guard my life when my enemies rage. You stretch out your hand; your right hand saves me. The LORD is with me to the end. LORD, your love endures forever. Never forsake the work of your hands! Psalm 138:5-8

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/082408.shtml

Piety is the way we say who Christ is. Piety reveals how much of our lives we put into the answer to the question that Christ puts on our hearts. Piety is the statement of our lives that we are willing to be who Christ would have been if he had been us. Piety makes Saints. Men and women are willing to give their lives for Christ change the world we are living in by their willingness to be updates of Christ in what they say and do with their lives. What Christ said to Peter at Caesarea Philippi, he says to us. He is willing to make us into the rocks on which he will build his Church today.

Our study has as its purpose to instruct us in how to be a Christ of today.

Peace and Justice have to meet. Christ identifies with the ravaged face of his poor. Christ is willing to be one in all the needs of the people who are most his. The cry of the poor belong to Christ and there is no excuse in what can one person do against so much injustice in our world. It is true that we can only face one hungry, naked, sick, thirsty, prisoner at a time.

The work of the Lord needs men and women grounded in how to harness the energies of love. For it is love that will change the world that we are living in if in spite of all our mistakes, we reach out in the name of Christ to do something about the problem we face.. Love will heal these ills if we give it a chance.

Action

Paul says it so wonderfully in his letter to the Romans, 11:33-36. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! He calls us to reach out in his name. In the work that we choose to do in his name, God clothes us with the robe of Christ and girds us with his sash and gives us his authority. The catch in the recognition of Christ as the Holy One of God is that we have to go up with him to Jerusalem. The call of discipleship is to take his place with the crosses of our lives. It is by carrying his cross that we make Christ recognizable in our lives.