Scripture Study for

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Understanding the Word

By Br. John R. Barker, OFM

One of the Servant Songs, this passage from Isaiah points toward a  particularly hostile, yet paradoxically fruitful, result of speaking for  God. The Servant begins by affirming his fidelity to God in the face  of great hostility. The source of his strength in the face of adversity is  not the Servant himself, but the God who sent him. The Servant is in  the right when he claims to speak for God, because it is God who has  “opened his heart that he may hear.” Despite the social and perhaps  religious “shame” that is attendant upon his preaching, the Servant  is confident not only that he is in the right, but also that those who  currently oppose him will come to recognize this. 

James continues to speak about being doers of the word of truth, the true form of worship. Faith cannot be limited to hearing and  believing this word. Such “faith” is no faith at all and is not saving  because it does not conform the individual to God’s will or way  of viewing the world. “Works” here means living according to  God’s values, which includes “care for orphans and widows in their  affliction” (1:27) and fulfilling “the royal law according to scripture:  ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (2:8). It is a delusion to  think that one could have faith without living in accordance with it,  which is to say, by “demonstrating” it. 

At Caesarea Phillipi Jesus questions his disciples to provoke a  response. Jesus indirectly affirms Peter’s response that he is the  Messiah by referring to himself as “the Son of Man,” a messianic  term. While Peter recognizes who Jesus is, he is unable to fathom or  accept the possibility that Jesus’ death and identity are consistent.  Peter’s “rebuke” was probably in the form of a denial that such a  thing would be necessary, or even possible (if Jesus is the Christ).  Jesus rebukes Peter in turn for failing to recognize that God does  not work according to human expectations. Nor should those who  follow Jesus expect to avoid his fate. 

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