1st August Trinity 2007, Shining Revelation

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

1^st August Trinity

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there he asked the disciples (and said to them), “Who do people say that I am?”

They said to him, “Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets.”

Then he asked them, “And you, who do you say that I am?’

Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

 

And he began to teach them: “The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed and after three days he will rise again.” Freely and openly he told them this.

Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, “Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature.”

 Luca Rossetti da Orta

And he called the crowd together, including his disciples and said to them, “Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of his own soul will lose it; but whoever gives his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, his soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that he damages his soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can a man give as ransom for his soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels.“

And he said to them, “The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit.”

1^st August Trinity

July 22, 2007

Mark 8:27-9:1

  

Sometimes we hear a sound of something we can’t quite make out. Our mind tries to identify it based on things we have already heard. But if it is something we have never heard before, we may either give up trying to comprehend, or we may force the sound to fit into something we already know. A third option would be to expand a space inwardly to make room for something new.

Daniel Bonnell

In this gospel reading, Jesus is perceived as the Christ, the One Anointed for a special task. He tries to explain what being mankind’s highest leader will mean; it will mean suffering and death, but also resurrection. In order to journey with Him into the next phase of humanity’s evolution, His disciples will have to give up their hopes and expectations of His earthly kingship. They will need to free themselves from their preconceptions, for the old is at an end.

At the same time, they will need to bestir themselves, to pour their souls’ activity into following Him on this new path. They will need to change the way they think. They will need to re-tune the instrument of their feeling so that their actions fit this new path. For His path is one of selfless service, of selfless selfhood. It finds its power through hearing the good news from the realm of the angels. It is a path that heals and bridges the gulf between heaven and earth, between life and death, between the old and the new.

Today humanity is being called to perceive the new revelation of the Christ. We are being asked to free ourselves from preconceptions based on what we think we already know. We are being asked to hear His voice from the realm of the angels in inner silence. We are being invited to give up our self-preoccupation and to offer ourselves to His guidance. Walking with Christ, we walk through suffering and pain into the healing of our fellow human beings, into the healing of the earth.

www.thechristiancommunity.org