”Who do you say that I am?”….St Peter replied: “You are the Messiah”…But who do YOU say that Jesus is?……Before you answer…."Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return"

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St Luke…In it Jesus is in his home town and he makes some bold statements…..”The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord”……In a nutshell what Jesus just said was…”I’m the guy” you have been waiting for!…I am the Messiah!…And the people who heard this question him…..”They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?”….God himself stood in their midst and they missed him…..Do we miss him?…….Do we judge people and things by worldly expectations as the people in this Gospel today did?…If we do…We too will “miss out” on what stares us right in the face…Jesus Christ is fully present in the Blessed Sacrament…He has not left us, in fact he may be more present now then he was when he walked the earth 2000 years ago…Do we see him?

Let’s dig into this passage from St Luke today from Mass a bit more…At first the people who heard Jesus were very impressed…But then Jesus “drops a bomb” on them…He challenges them!….And how quickly did the people turn on him…..”They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong”…….What kind of messiah were they looking for?……This is the question we need to ask our self…….If we “do not like” what God has to say…...Then we are in fact making our self out to be God, whether we realize it or not….We “make the rules” - "I live my life on my terms"!…..How many times have we heard that?

"Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return"

People do a lot of talking…I always say, before you listen to someone, watch what they do!…..We each make choices and its our choices that determine who we are, not necessarily our words…..For thirteen years I was a bank auditor and I traveled all over America and South America. I can remember going to a dinner with a colleague of mine in Washington DC. This young man went to the University of Virginia and invited some of his friends who he graduated college with to meet us for dinner. I can very clearly remember siting across from one of his friends who flat out said…......”All I have to do is sell my soul for a few years and I am set”……I was a bit older then her and as she said this I just thought to myself….”What a mistake”…But how many people think like that?……How many people rationalize behavior, which is beneficial in the short term but in the end leaves us empty and alone?…….But we all make choices - We were given free will by God….....However, our choices define who we are and they also have very real consequences both in the here and now as well as in eternity.

"I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live"

Back to Jesus in the gospel today from Mass….Jesus was the son of a carpenter and he was telling the people of his day something that was extremely important……That their eternal salvation depended upon him….And they were not having it!…Have things changed much in 2000 years?…..Our eternal salvation is dependent upon that same “carpenter” and the Church he founded…..And the world still is not having it!……”All I have to do is sell my soul for a few years and I am set”…..What a colossal mistake!……”They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong”

In the beginning of his ministry Jesus asked his 12 friends a very important question…”Who do you say that I am?”….St Peter replied: “You are the Messiah”…But who do YOU say that Jesus is?……Before you answer…."Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return"