Twelfth Sunday – Ordinary Time Cycle C
Reflecting on Luke 9:18-24
Kathleen, you wouldn’t care so much what people think of you if you knew how seldom they do. That was my Irish father talking, telling his self-absorbed adolescent daughter one of the hardest facts of life: people aren’t really paying any attention to you. Oh. Good to know.
But it turns out that Jesus cares what other people think of him too, and asks out loud, who do the crowds say I am? Is he John the Baptist, somehow come back from the dead? Or maybe Elijah, who went to the heavens in a chariot of fire and hasn’t been seen since? Their answers reveal the kind of Mediterranean chatter and interest in the outsider that now seems to belong only in the past.
But Jesus (the Christ) wants us to think about him, to pay attention to him, to have an opinion about him, to gossip with our friends about him. He knows that the more attention we pay to someone the more space in our lives that person will take.
Let’s revive the lost art of spiritual chatter. Let’s gossip with the whole Church about this Jesus, and who we say he is. Let’s breathe on the smoldering wicks of the Scriptures and see if we can start some fires. One billion Christians heard this Gospel today. What’s the buzz?
Let’s get talking, Church. Because, as five-year-old Elliott said to God, I think of you sometimes even when I’m not praying.
Sharing God’s Word at Home:
Who do you say he is?
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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).