24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B)

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.

Mk 8: 27-35

The gospel this Sunday is divided into three parts:

• Part 1: The identity of Jesus. Who is this Jesus?
• Part 2: The destiny of Jesus, the Messiah. What will happen to Jesus?
• Part 3: The cost of discipleship. What is required of those who follow Jesus?
  

Who is Jesus?

According to the people, Jesus is a prophet who will prepare for the coming of the Anointed One (Messiah in Hebrew and Christ in Greek). But they are wrong. It is Peter who perceives the true identity of Jesus. Jesus is the Christ.

What is the destiny of Jesus, the Messiah or the Christ?

According to Jesus, he must suffer at the hands of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhed-rin is the supreme religious governing body of the Jews. It is made up of 71 members coming from the aristocracy, the priestly families and the scribes. At that time, Caiaphas was the high priest.

Hearing this, Peter reacts by telling Jesus not to talk this way. Jesus responded by calling Peter, Satan, for like Satan Peter is preventing Jesus from ful-filling the Father’s will.

“Get behind me, Satan” is meaningful. Peter was probably in front of Jesus. In the position, he was blocking the way of Jesus. It symbolizes Peter preventing Jesus from doing the Father’s will. By telling Peter to get behind him, Jesus was telling Peter not to be a Satan but a disciple. For where do you expect the disciple to be but behind the Master, following his footsteps?

It is interesting to note that Peter seems to not have heard completely the words of Jesus. He seems have missed Jesus saying that after having been killed, he would rise after three days. In other words, the destiny of Jesus was not tragedy but victory.

What does it cost a person to become a disciple of Jesus?

If you want to maintain a master-disciple relationship with Jesus, you must be prepared to suffer rejection and death like Jesus. But the story does not end there. Like Jesus, the disciple will also experience victory.

DESTINY

Jesus perceived that his destiny was to suffer at the hands of the Sanhedrin. Jesus sees the Father’s will in his destiny. For this reason, he feels he MUST face it even if it appears to be a tragedy. But by accepting the Father’s will, he wins the salvation of mankind and becomes its Savior.

Ninoy Aquino felt the need to leave the comforts of exile in the United States and return to the Philippines. He wanted to convince the dictator Ferdinand Marcos to give up power and return the Philippines to democracy. He knew that it might cost him his life for he had been warned by Imelda Marcos. But he felt he MUST do it. It was his destiny. He did return. He did die. It may seem at the time that his destiny was tragic. But looking back now, we know that his death was a turning point in Philippine history. Three years later the dictator and his family fled Malacanang. Democracy was restored and Ninoy Aquino was hailed a hero.

Destiny in Pilipino is “kapalaran”. Its root is the word “palad”, that is palm. Destiny is often understood as already written in the palm of one’s hand, that is, one’s destiny is already determined. It is unavoidable. There is no way out of it. In this sense, you are a helpless victim of destiny. This is not how we understand the destiny of Jesus and Ninoy.

But there is another way of looking at destiny and it is to understand destiny as something that is in your hands, that is, your destiny depends on you.

First, it depends on you because you and you alone have to discover your des-tiny. By looking at the world and by listening to your heart, you will discover your destiny. Ninoy Aquino looked at the situation of the Filipino people. He saw them suffering at the hands of the dictator Marcos and his cronies. He listened to his heart. His heart told him that it was his duty to try to set the people free. It looked like an impossible dream. But he felt he had to do it.

And second, it depends upon you because you have to make a decision to fulfill your destiny. At least three times, Jesus could have avoided suffering and death at the hands of the Sanhedrin but he chose not to. These times were: the temptation in the desert, the rebuke of Peter and the agony in Gethsemani.

Ninoy could have decided to remain in the United States and enjoy his exile there with his family. He could have decided not to go because there was a threat of assassination. But he decided to return. He declared that the Filipino was worth dying for. And die he did.

By looking at the world in which we live, by listening to what our heart is telling us what to do in this world and by deciding to do what our heart is telling us, we shall fulfill our destiny, our kapalaran. And in so doing, we not only become better for it. We also leave this world better than it was before.