Gospel Reflections for September 16 2018
Who do people say that I am?
Jesus asks a bold question! However, He doesn’t just ask people about what He does …He asks what they think of Him as a person.
He hears responses that compare Him to other people, like the Prophet Elijah or John the Baptist. However, Peter answers that He is none of these, but rather the true Messiah …the divine Son of God.
Peter recognizes the difference between admiration of great people and what it means to be a divine Son of God. That is a huge difference!
Our Church is not founded on great people! After all, Jesus soon rebukes Peter sharply for his human frailty. There is no human person on which the Church can alone stand, but only the divine person of Jesus Christ, who affirms “I will build my Church on you, Peter….” (Matthew 16:18)
Jesus knew His Church would be filled with human beings with all their failings and sinfulness. A quick glance at our long Church history reveals that is exactly what happened, and certainly continues to this day. We should never be shocked that some human beings in His Church constantly reveal their very human knack for selfish behavior, despite our hopes that it might be different.
There is no possible explanation for the 2000 year existence of the Catholic Church except that it is the Church that Christ Himself founded. Any other institution would have collapsed long ago. One proof for the existence of God is the continued existence of His Church!
Amazingly, in precisely the darkest days of our history is when our most famous saints came forward. That is counter-intuitive. Usually, failing institutions …simply end. How is it possible that we have lasted these two thousand years through such turbulent times and with such bad leaders then and now?
Only because of Our Lord’s majestic last words, “I will be with you always, even until the end of the world!” (Matthew 28:20)
Fortunately, we do not have to only depend only on the goodness, competence, or even holiness of Church leaders. Church leaders come and go, and certainly many have been saints.
Our Lord always remains, so we never let some other person’s lack of faith, hope, or love, or bad behavior affect us. We stay connected to our Lord and the Church He Himself founded.
Now is the time when we are called to be saints.
God Bless!
Fr. Dave
Dear Father Dave,
I believe as you that our Catholicism has been tested through the ages and will always persevere because it is Christ’s Church.
God bless.
Sincerely,
Kathleen
Dear Fr.Dave,
Yes yes yes. Never let someone else’s lack of faith ,hope ,or love, affect your faith, hope, or love,……No matter what!!
We always have our Sweet Jesus!!
God Bless
Jane
Father Dave,
In my mind our Catholic Church will stand many more thousands of years because we are a strong and forgiving people, keeping our Faith in our Father in heaven, in our Lord Jesus and invoking the Holy Spirit to decend on us all, Stronger leaders will emerge.
God Bless all,
Joe G.
In this fallen world of ours, we see the evil that is creeping in and taking hold
of peoples’ lives and the church is no exception.
Our shepherds have failed to inspire us and have left us wondering what to do next.
We know our one true Shepherd, Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.
When we connect with Him He will show us the way
He is the only one we can trust completely.
Father Dave,
So many have a feeling of loss for our church & leaders. But we must have faith and know our church will survive these challenges in its history too.
God is good we must be faithful.
Father Dave, We have a precious church because Jesus’ love is at its heart!!! We must live in Jesus’ love and live it!!! No one can take His love and Faith from us!! You are soooooooooooooooooooo right!! We must all strive to be Saints no matter if we are surrounded with hurts in our church and in our world!! We must lead positively in love!!!You are a beautiful priest and you lead us beautifully for our precious Jesus lives beautifully in you!!! Have a beautiful day in our loving Jesus and our beautiful Blessed Mother’s Divine Love!!! That is all we need to make our world a beautiful place!!! We have to live their love!!! We are sooooooooooooooooooo blessed!!!!
Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee you!!
Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Franca and Dick
Well said!
First Peter says that Jesus is the Christ, then he thinks with his heart and rebukes Jesus for saying what he didn’t want to hear. Lets me think that thee is hope for me…
What is happening in the Church today, I think I said this before, God is cleaning house. It is never fun to clean house but once it is clean it will be glorious. This is a time where real faith is needed that God loves the Church and wants it cleaned. I love your response.
I’m only another reader of Father Dave’s weekly synopsis of our Sunday gospels, but I wanted to comment on what you said. Yes, true faith and “cleaning house” is a good thing.
Cleaning house is always a good thing!
Well said!
Dear brother in JC:
There is a little fallacy when you asseverate that “There is no possible explanation for the 2000 year existence of the Catholic Church “…The history of Israel is more old, the history of Army of China is more old, the existence of the budism with Siddharta Gautama five sicles before JC….Is the truth that existence of christianism, only the christianism has 2000 years and this include the ortodoxe church, the coptic church, and diverses options. Please, do not teach the history of catholic church in a biasey way…And I am a catholic,priest from Guatemala but not fanatic…I prefer the ecumenism.
Yes, the existence of both Judaism and Christianity is a kind of “proof” for the existence of God in that neither could last without His presence despite constant human failings.
Well said Father Dave. Thank you.
You are very welcome!
Hi Father Dave, THESE ARE TOUGH TIMES WHEN WE WATCH OUR. YOUNG ONES QUITGOING TO MASS AND LOSING FAITH IN OUR CHURCH. WE HAVE TO KEEP OUR EYES ON Jesus and all He said. Thank you for all you do and say to help us. Fran Calfo
You are very welcome!
Excellent article, Fr. Dave. It encouraged me in these distressing times.
God bless,
Jennifer
I am glad you found my article helpful. Keep the faith!
There was this story of a lame person who was lowered down from Peter’s ceiling all the way inside his house. This lame individual had no limbs–and still was healed by Jesus by giving him the limbs that he never had. This act was not just an act of healing for healing sake–but rather it was as well a revelation of His future church a Church distinct from that temple in Jerusalem. A church which can stand on its own two feet as the lame person was.. This is the state of our church; then and now!
I think we would have to stay focused on doing God’s work while still we live. There might not be much of it in the after life. The great imperfection there is in our lives, the greater is our need for God’s works.
Thank you for your wonderful image of a person regaining his limbs to finally stand up. A great image of the church.