Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s
Confession)
1st
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.”
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.”
1st August Trinity
July 27, 2014
Mark 8: 27 – Mark
9:1
Changing our angle
of vision brings us very different information. Looking at an object from below
shows us a different aspect than from above; the right side may be different
from the left, as inner is from outer.
Christ asks two
questions of those following him. One is “Who do others say that I am?” And the
answers are multiple: John, Elijah, a prophet. Then he asks, “Who do you say
that I am?” It is a question that directs their attention within, to their
hearts. And Peter expresses the recognition that in Jesus there lives the promised
Messiah, Christ, the Son of God.
For all of us, what matters about Christ is not what
others say about him, for there are as many opinions as there are people. What
matters is our soul’s own inner recognition of who Christ Jesus is. For he
wants to live in and light up each human soul. He wants to live in our thinking
as the light of reverent wonder. He wants to live in our hearts as the light of
compassion and empathy. He wants to live in our will as enlightened deeds that
repair the past and prepare the future.
We can perhaps hear His voice in the poem by Rumi:
 |
| Jacopo Bassano |
If you put your hands on this
oar with me,
they will never harm another,
and they will come to find
they hold everything you want.
If you put your soul against
this oar with me,
the power that made the universe
will enter your sinew
from a source not outside your
limbs, but from a holy realm
that lives in us.*
*Rumi, “THAT LIVES IN US”, in Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by
Daniel Ladinsky
