Readings:
Readings: Eccl. 3:1-11, Ps.144, Luke 9:18-22
Rev.
Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.
WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND CONVICTION ABOUT THE LORD JESUS?
In
life there is always a moment when we will want to examine and know if our
friends can really be trusted, if they truly know and understand who we are and
what we represent? This is because, as social beings, we often make friends who
we can confide and entrust with our inner most thoughts and plans. But this
friendship does not come automatically, it is developed gradually.
This
is the situation between Jesus and his disciples in our Gospel passage today,
when Jesus asked them saying: Who do people say I Am?’ And they said, ‘Some say
John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’
‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ.
But he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone anything about this. For the
Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and
chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the
third day.
Here,
we see how Peter expressed his personal conviction about who Jesus is. He did
not have to quote any authority, because his response was a clear and sincere
knowledge of who he professed Jesus to be. This is because Peter’s gift of
faith comes from his personal encounter with the person of Jesus. Thus, our
faith requires that we give a personal answer to the question: who is Jesus to
me personally? For it is not enough to quote the teachings and Catechism of the
Church about our faith or the teachings of other theologians and preachers or
to respond only from the head, but from the heart that is convinced of what it
believes in.
Today
most people are following Jesus without knowing who Jesus truly represents.
Some people find it very difficult to embrace the teaching of Jesus because
they lack the faith and conviction about his personality, even when Jesus had
revealed himself to us through his great miracles and teachings. The fact is
that, Jesus wants us to develop a divine way of looking at things. He wants us
to know him deep down our soul, so that we can profess our faith with deeper
meaning and conviction. This faith is necessary in order to accommodate and
overcome the ugly event of persecutions, condemnation and blackmail that we encounter
everyday.
Little
wonder, the book of Ecclesiastes in our first reading today tells us that there is time for everything,
for every purpose, and everything will indeed happen as God wills it, and not
up to us to decide what will happen to us, as there are indeed many things out
there beyond our control and understanding. For what does a man gain for the
efforts that he makes? All that he does is apt for its time; but though he has
permitted man to consider time in its wholeness, but man on his own cannot
comprehend the work of God from beginning to end.
Dear
friends, having heard the teachings and great works of Jesus in the scriptures
and traditions of the Church, the question remains: what can I say is my
personal experience of Jesus? Have I personally encountered and identified our
Lord Jesus in my life? How has my knowledge of Jesus helped other people to
come to faith in Jesus?
Today
we are called to really examine our conscience to know where we are as regards
to our faith as Christians. We are called today to develop a divine way of
understanding the mysteries of God, but not rejecting them because we do not
understand them. Therefore, let us turn towards God once again with all our
hearts and devote our whole lives in seeking to know Him more and more.
LET US
PRAY: Lord God, you revealed to Peter the true identity of Jesus your Son, help
us through the intercessions of St. Vincent to personally identify the
personality of Jesus in our lives and so profess our faith with deeper meaning
and conviction. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. God bless you.
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