The WORD
today (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/021617.cfm)
makes me examine who God is in my life.
Parents
are very fond of their children, especially babies. And as they start to talk,
parents love to ask their children to say their name. Daddy. Mommy. Papa. Mama.
They love to their their children calling their name. They love the fact that
their children know who they are. This is probably what God wants from us as
his children.
The gospel shows us Jesus
asking the disciples the question: Who am I to
you? He asked them who other people said he was, but it was really
not important to Jesus. What matters to him
is who his disciples see him for. Who he is to his disciples. Peter
proclaimed that Jesus is the Christ of God. Jesus then affirmed it, and
reminded them that even though he is such, he will have to suffer in the hands
of people – telling them that they would suffer too as his followers, but with
the assurance of victory when Jesus told them he will be raised on the third
day.
Today,
God is asking us the same question: Who
am I to you? It does not
matter what other people say Jesus is. It does not matter what sins we have
committed in the past. It does not matter what we intend to do in our
lives. What matters for Christ is our
answer to his question. And we can only say he is our God if we have
an intimate and personal relationship with
him. if we don’t pray, if we don’t hear mass and take the
sacraments, if we don’t read the bible, if we don’t experience Jesus, we cannot
honestly say that he is our God. Probably we can say that other people say he
is, or other people say he is a great and loving God, but unless we build an
intimate relationship with Him, we cannot say the same.
We
are challenged today.
Proclaiming who Jesus is for us
is not a one time decision. we cannot just say he is our God and forget about
it. We need to constantly work on our
relationship with God. We need to constantly be conscious of how we
live our lives. Our relationship with God today will not automatically extend
until forever. We need to do our part. Otherwise, we may be like Peter who one
moment proclaimed who Jesus was, and the other referred to as satan by Jesus
because he was not willing to submit to God's plans.
Who
is Jesus to you? Who is Jesus in your life? Do you put Him first in your life?
Do you believe that He is the all loving, all merciful, all powerful God? Do
you believe that He can work great things to and through you? Do you work on
your relationship with God? Do you do it constantly?
May we find it in our hearts to
answer him like Peter did – that he is Christ the God, that he is God in our lives.
May we work to have an intimate and personal relationship with Him, and work
harder to maintain and grow it.
Father God,
Thank you for
today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for the reminder snd
challenge. I praise and adore you for who you are. Lord, I am so blessed that
you are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and that no matter what I do,
you will not love me less. I am so grateful to be worshiping the same God that
Peter worshiped, and I believe that you will use me in a mighty way the same
way you used Peter for your glory. Lord, sorry for the times you are not God in
my life. Sorry for putting others above you. Sorry for not having the desire
and will to work on my relationship with you. Lord, I ask that you help me live
proclaiming that you are the Messiah, that you are my God, so that I can bring
people to you and glorify you. Help me build and sustain an intimate and
personal relationship with you. This I ask in Jesus name, Amen.
Blessed
day!
In
Christ,
-g-
February 16, 2017
Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 338
Reading 1 Gn 9:1-13
"Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.
Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth
and all the birds of the air,
upon all the creatures that move about on the ground
and all the fishes of the sea;
into your power they are delivered.
Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat;
I give them all to you as I did the green plants.
Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.
For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting:
from every animal I will demand it,
and from one man in regard to his fellow man
I will demand an accounting for human life.
If anyone sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
For in the image of God
has man been made.
Be fertile, then, and multiply;
abound on earth and subdue it."
God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark.
I will establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;
there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."
God added:
"This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 102:16-18, 19-21, 29 and 22-23
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
The children of your servants shall abide,
and their posterity shall continue in your presence,
That the name of the LORD may be declared in Zion,
and his praise, in Jerusalem,
When the peoples gather together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
Alleluia Jn 6:63c, 68c
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;
you have the words of everlasting life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mk 8:27-33
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that I am?"
They said in reply,
"John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets."
And he asked them,
"But who do you say that I am?"
Peter said to him in reply,
"You are the Christ."
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
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