XXIV Sunday in Ordinary Time  B  (15 September 2024)

1. The liturgy of this Sunday is well connected with the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, which we celebrated yesterday and which led us to meditate on the glorious death of Christ. From the height of the Cross, it is he himself who asks us the question that, as we read in today's gospel, he asked his disciples one day: Who am I to you? Who is Jesus, the Christ? This is the fundamental question of our faith and it provokes everyone, as it awaits a personal answer: either accept it or reject it because no compromises or half-measures are allowed. Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians adore as true God and true man, continues to cause debate and troubles the conscience of many. For how can one remain indifferent before Christ, true God and true man, who empties himself of his divinity not only to the point of becoming man, but even to die abandoned and despised on a cross like a slave? And as if that were not enough, he makes himself broken bread to nourish the faithful with his immortal life in the sacrament of the Eucharist? St. Mark, who after leaving St. Paul follows and lives for a long time next to the Apostle Peter, conveys the Apostle's certainty of faith in Jesus the Christ; a faith that, however, passed through a long spiritual travail that also takes into account his triple denial during his Master's passion. The evangelist becomes our "pedagogue" to teach us how to encounter Christ and know him, making us understand that it is not necessary to understand in order to follow him, but on the contrary, it is necessary to follow him in order to know him. In this Sunday's Gospel passage, our gaze focuses on Saint Peter who, after having just made a beautiful profession of faith for the first time: "You are the Christ" receives a harsh rebuke: "get behind me, Satan! For you do not think according to God, but according to men".  Why such a decisive and even violent reaction to the point of apostrophising him as 'Satan'? Let us begin to understand this better by reading the episode of which today's Gospel passage speaks, which occurred while the Master and the disciples were going to Caesarea Philippi, the borderland between the chosen people and the pagans. If until now the disciples and all the people have been asking the question: Who is this one who performs miracles, who speaks in an engaging manner, who is able to calm the stormy sea and drive out demons? Is he not the expected Messiah? Here, after Peter's first profession "You are the Christ" Jesus gradually begins to unveil the mystery of his identity. 

2. It is often said that Mark's Gospel unfolds in a dynamic that starts precisely from the obscurity of the beginning and arrives at the final luminous splendour of the resurrection. There will still be some way to go and only at the end, as Jesus dies, will the words of the centurion's confession under the cross: "Truly this man was the Son of God" (15:39) show who He really is and the light of the resurrection, that is, the victory of life over death, will destroy the darkness by showing in full the true identity of Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man. Afterwards, the Gospel message will begin to spread to all regions of the world, although it will take courage, patience and above all faith for it to become a lived life, as Christian communities testify thanks to the many martyrs and saints of Christianity.  The relationship between darkness and light is connected to the so-called 'messianic secret', which characterises the gradual revelation of Jesus' identity and mission in Mark's gospel. It begins in the very first chapter: "Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God" (1:1), Jesus is Christ and Lord (1:3); as he is baptised a voice from heaven declares him "Beloved Son" (1:11). His identity is confirmed by the unclean spirits with the title "Holy One of God" or "Son of God" (cf. 1.24; 3.11; 5.7), while the crowds who meet him ask: "who is this Jesus of Nazareth? until chapter seven when the Syro-Phoenician woman calls him Jesus "Lord" (7.28). 

3. We have thus come to chapter eight, to today's gospel page. If up to now we can summarise everything in the question: "But who are you? Are you the Messiah?", today Jesus answers Peter and confirms that he is the Messiah, but makes it clear that he is not according to human expectations, and foretells his passion and death.  In the hearts of the disciples, the darkness/light contrast becomes more vivid and guided by the patience of the divine Master from their initial incomprehension they gradually come to the discovery of his true identity. Announcing the gospel and performing miracles he always called for silence and did not want to be propagandized because it was easy to misunderstand him. Messiah was indeed a title that lent itself to various interpretations and while confirming that he was, as he did with Peter, Jesus presented himself not as a triumphant but as a suffering Messiah and even for the disciples, who knew the history of their people, this was something paradoxical and inconceivable. Their fragile faith needed to be purified and enlightened and that is why Jesus asks them "not to speak of him to anyone" and rebukes them as he had done before with the demons.  Together with the disciples, let us also allow ourselves to be taken by the hand of the evangelist and follow him on the long journey that will lead us to meet who the Messiah really is. From now on, the question will in fact be: 'Who am I to you'? It is the Master who questions us and helps us to enter into the intimacy of his love by speaking of his passion and death on the cross. We are faced with an absolute novelty that manifests its full force in the extreme fragility of the cross. If we want to encounter Jesus not superficially, we must accept to follow him wherever he leads us, and being his disciples means continuing to walk behind him. He also points out the three conditions of this following: firstly, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself'; secondly, 'take up his cross and follow me' wherever he goes, if necessary even to the point of being crucified with him; and finally, 'whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it'. The message is hard and clear, but liberating and happy: if you lose your life for Christ's sake you save it because you do not base it on yourself but on him, the Christ. And this is the true wisdom of the saints.

Happy Sunday!

+Giovanni D'Ercole