12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 20, 2010

(Zechariah 12:10-11,13:1; Galatians 3:26-29; Luke 9:18-24)

Zechariah was active as a prophet in Judah as the return from Babylonian

captivity continued about 520 BC. However, chapter 12 comes from a later period
and, although attributed to Zechariah, is written closer to 300 BC. There is no
historical figure that we can certainly point to and say the prophet referred to him
when he wrote they shall look upon him whom they have pierced. But the Gospel
of John made clear reference to this in the death of Jesus when the soldier pierces
the side of Jesus with a lance (Jn.19:34).
The Gospel passage from Luke involves Jesus emerging from prayer to ask
his disciples about rumors. The question Who do the crowds say I am is directed
to Christians of every age, who must answer.
Obviously prayer affects everyone differently. A good period of meditation
often clears the mind and a person is able to face things anew, refreshed and
invigorated. Sometimes, though, prayer leaves one troubled and disturbed and full
of questions. Some people think such questions mean they are doubting their faith.
It may just be that prayer leads them into areas they had never gone before.
In any case, Jesus has probably heard rumors and whisperings too about
himself, so its natural enough that he would ask the disciples what they have heard.
On another level, though, whenever the gospels pose questions, they are directed at
the reader of the text as much as they are at the audience in the particular event.
Jesus seeks to clarify and distinguish what others say about him from what the
disciples say about him.
When Jesus asks them directly: but who do you say I am he asks the group
as a whole. That is, the question is asked in the 2nd person plural. As in Matthew
19:21 and Mark 8:29, when this question is asked, Peter becomes the speaker for all
the disciples when he confesses Jesus to be the Christ of God.
This confession identifies Jesus as the Christ or anointed one, or as in Hebrew, the
Messiah.
Immediately upon being identified as Messiah, Jesus explains that he is aware
of his upcoming rejection and death and ultimate victory in the resurrection. Some
commentators think this is a prophecy after the fact. That is to say that the gospel
writers, aware of these later events, all place it on the lips of Jesus as though it were
about to happen, even though the evangelists knew already as they were writing that
it had indeed happened, thus a prophecy after the fact.
Whatever the case, we are always intimately bound with the death and
resurrection of Jesus in the Liturgy. The cross remains our central focus always. In
this case Jesus teaches that discipleship (if anyone wishes to come after me)
requires the cross.
This message is so counter-cultural that it rings hollow in large parts of the
developed world. Where there is an abundance of wealth and material goods, the
real Gospel will always have a hard time taking root. People simply disconnect with
Jesus at this point. Abandoning the self for the sake of Christ is incomprehensible.
The conundrum of saving our life by losing it rings hollow in our world. Yet it is
precisely this that a true disciple of Jesus the Christ of God must do. We are so
worried about self preservation these days that we have lost sight of the end goal of
our existence--to die. For in dying, of course, we are borne to eternal life.

Fr. Lawrence L. Hummer