24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I love watching sports bloopers.  Every Friday morning I look forward to ESPN’s

“Not Top 10” plays as I eat my breakfast.  There is something truly humorous about watching a professional athlete who has played a sport his entire life—who is paid an obscene amount of money to play a game—throw a baseball thirty yards off line, totally muff a dunk, or, my personal favorite, when two entire football teams ran the wrong direction after a punt.  These were college athletes!  This is funny to us because these athletes are fine tuned and they know how to play the game and they usually excel in executing.  When they don’t, especially when they mess up big time, this is hilarious.

            Yet we shouldn’t point our finger too far.  We all do stupid and embarrassing things.  Just think about the times I’ve had trying to do incense here at St. John’s.  For those who are unfamiliar, over the course of five or six years I burned my hand, stained Dcn. Walt’s alb, almost set the sacristy on fire and set off the smoke alarms.  (I must say, though, that Fr. Rich did have a hand in this!)  This same person once walked into a glass window thinking it was a door at Target Center.  Or drove from out of his driveway directly into our neighbors parked trailer.  As humans we all do stupid things, and if you’re like me they happen every day.

            There is a crucial difference, though, between an embarrassing mistake at the human level and a mistake at the spiritual or moral level.  Sin is just that—knowing what is right and doing wrong.  The only one to do this perfectly was Jesus Christ (and His Mother).

            Today we hear the prophet Isaiah foretell Jesus’ coming as the suffering servant—as the one Who knew His Father’s will perfectly and did it.  “The Lord God opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back.  I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.”  Think about that…God became man and that was how He was treated.  Jesus knew this would happen and He still obeyed.

Jesus fulfilled what St. James wrote—“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works…So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

When it comes to faith and works, there are two errors in our society.  The first says that faith alone is sufficient.  My personal relationship with God is all that matters.  The second is the exact opposite—what is needed is good deeds, and this alone.  Yet faith without works is dead…this is just what James condemns in his letter.  And works without faith is sterile.  We must do good in the world, not just to feed the hungry or help the poor.  We do good works to pass on what we have been given—faith.  We must not think like men—that either faith or works alone suffice—but as God does—faith and works go hand in hand like a root and a tree.

We have a great model today—Peter.  After Jesus asks His disciples who people said He was Peter answers, “You are the Christ.”  Well done, Peter!  If you were in kindergarten I’d give you a piece of candy.  Peter had faith, but he didn’t have the strength to live this faith out to the full.  After taking Jesus aside to rebuke Him on His mission, Jesus exclaims, “Get behind me Satan!”

Yet this is not the end of the story for Peter.  At the end of our Gospel passage today, Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”  Thirty or forty years after Jesus’ crucifixion, Peter did deny himself and took up a cross.  Like the Lord he was crucified—upside down—and martyred.  Peter found the strength to affirm his faith by how he lived and died.

            Please, God, none of us will probably be crucified or martyred.  But as we come to Mass today with faith, how are we living it out?  Faith without works is dead, works without faith is sterile.  As we receive the Eucharist in faith today, how is God calling me to work this week?