Homily for Wednesday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time

For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/090507.shtml

After many years of reading and studying the Gospels, and now having the opportunity to preach on them, I’m finally starting to get the hang of the messianic secret. Most prevalent in Mark, the messianic secret shows up in the other synoptic Gospels as well, as it does in Luke today, as Jesus rebukes the demons and does not allow them to tell others that He is the Christ.

It is characteristic throughout the Gospels that Jesus wants not simply to command faith from the top down to his disciples, but to elicit it from within their hearts. He knows how badly the disciples will need this faith after Pentecost. Jesus wants his disciples to trust their faith, for it is important for every disciple of Jesus to not just believe in Him because they are told to, or because everyone else does. No, every disciple of Jesus must answer the question that Jesus puts to his disciples, ‘Who do you say that I am?’

I’m so thankful to have been called a priest since in a sense, everyday I must give my answer to this question to those people I am called to serve. Hopefully people will come to faith in Jesus not because they are obedient to me, but because they will see in the witness of my life the truth that is written on their own hearts about the identity of Jesus. Jesus thus rebukes the testimony of the demons for several reasons. First, because demons are not trustworthy, although they are right in this case about his identity. Second, because He has not yet reached Jerusalem, where His identity will be put on trial and not before then. Thirdly, and most importantly, because Jesus wants to elicit faith from his disciples, and He wants to do it in the context of His entire mission of proclaiming and establishing the kingdom of God.