Gospel Reflection for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Saturday, 14 September 2024
By The Benedictine Community
I will walk in the presence of the Lord,
in the land of the living. (Psalm 114)
This gospel is a famous lesson in the cost of discipleship and it is also Peter's story as he told it to his disciple, 'my son, Mark.' (1 Peter 5:13)
Peter answers Jesus' first question magnificently: You are the Christ. Then as we read further this privileged knowledge and his leadership of the disciples comes at a very great cost... He was to see his Master tortured and crucified and his own courage fail in the face of it.
We are disciples of Jesus in today's world, no less than Peter and the other disciples and there is indeed a cost. Even if our own faith is strong, we are surrounded and sometimes overwhelmed by hostile anti-Christian values which leave us confused and uncertain and ultimately paralyzed.
When this happens, what can we do? Where can we go?
We have only prayer and the Sacraments and day by day Christian living. The cross we take up is shared by Jesus the Master we follow, and by Peter, both of whom have trod this way before us.