{"id":3216,"date":"2016-06-24T07:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=3216"},"modified":"2016-10-06T17:05:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T00:05:00","slug":"in-your-own-words-homily-for-the-12th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/in-your-own-words-homily-for-the-12th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c","title":{"rendered":"In Your Own Words – Homily for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bible\"<\/p>\n

One of the most dreaded phrases
\nin classrooms everywhere is
\n\u201cin your own words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExplain the causes of the Civil War in your own words<\/em>.\u201d
\n\u201cDescribe the process of photosynthesis in your own words<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teachers love the phrase because it requires students
\nto do deep thinking;
\nand students dread the phrase,
\nbecause it requires them to do deep thinking.<\/p>\n

It may seem cruel of me to be talking about school
\nso soon after summer vacation has begun,
\nbut I only bring it up because of what happens in today\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n

Jesus is ending one stage of his ministry,
\nand he\u2019s giving his disciples a kind of oral mid-term.
\nThis is a turning point in Luke\u2019s gospel.
\nJesus is about to begin his long journey
\ntoward Jerusalem and the cross.
\nBefore that happens,
\nhe wants his disciples to be clear about who he is.<\/p>\n

And so first Jesus prays in solitude.
\nIn Luke\u2019s gospel, this is always the signal
\nthat something important is about to take place.
\nThis is a key event,
\nnot only for Jesus\u2019 disciples in this gospel,
\nbut also for us, Jesus\u2019 disciples here and now.<\/p>\n

And so for this mid-term test,
\nJesus begins with an easy question:
\n\u201cWho do the crowds say that I am?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just a matter of simple recall.
\nYou can almost see the disciples raising their hands.
\n\u201cJohn the Baptist, some say;
\nothers say Elijah;
\nstill others, one of the prophets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe the disciples begin to feel a little proud of themselves:
\n\u201cSee, we\u2019ve been paying attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then Jesus asks the tough question:
\n\u201cBut you, who do you say that I am?\u201d<\/p>\n

What he means is,
\n\u201cYou who walk with me and live with me,
\nyou who know me,
\nWho do you say that I am? In your own words<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Jesus asks the same question of each one of us.<\/p>\n

We might reply
\nthe Son of God,
\nthe New Adam,
\nthe Lamb of God,
\nmy Lord and Savior.<\/p>\n

Or maybe we would would borrow some of the great answers
\nthat have come down through the ages
\nfrom saints, poets, theologians, and authors*:
\nIn the Litany of the Sacred Heart
\nJesus is the House of God and Gate of Heaven.
\nFr. Eugene Boylan calls him This Tremendous Lover.
\nFor poet Francis Thompson he is The Hound of Heaven.
\nTo C.S. Lewis he is Aslan, the Lion of Narnia.
\nBach called him The Joy of Man\u2019s Desiring.
\nFor Pope John Paul II he is a mirror in which we can see who we are.<\/p>\n

Those are all excellent answers,
\nbut they\u2019re not in our own words.
\nThat would be cheating.
\nJesus wants the answer in our own words,
\nnot repeated from memory or found in a book.<\/p>\n

Peter didn\u2019t read his answer in a catechism;
\nhis answer came through his personal encounter with Jesus.
\nHe saw Jesus work and heard him speak,
\nand so he was able to say,
\n\u201cYou are the Christ of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus wants our own answer
\nto be based on our personal relationship with him.<\/p>\n

Our answer doesn\u2019t have to be poetic.
\nIt doesn\u2019t even have to be completely right.
\nPeter\u2019s answer was incomplete\u2014
\nhe correctly called Jesus the Christ,
\nbut he had little idea that it meant Jesus would suffer
\nand then die on a cross.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t need to worry about flowery language
\nor getting things just right.
\nWe only need to be honest.<\/p>\n

But it can be hard to come up with our own answer
\nespecially since we\u2019ve heard all the other answers so often.
\nWhen we start to think about who Jesus is,
\nthe first thing that often comes to mind is what we hear at Mass,
\nwhat we\u2019ve been taught by parents and catechists,
\nor what we\u2019ve read in books.<\/p>\n

The challenge of today\u2019s liturgy, then,
\nis to get past those other answers,
\nand tell him in our own words who he is for us personally.<\/p>\n

There are a couple of practices that can help us do this.<\/p>\n

The first is a writing exercise,
\nand it\u2019s a technique for helping students
\nwho get stuck writing things from the surface,
\nunable to get at their own deeper thoughts.<\/p>\n

The same thing can happen when we think about who Jesus is.
\nWe can remain comfortably on the surface,
\nsimply repeating the same phrases and titles we\u2019ve heard before
\nwithout really challenging ourselves to go deeper
\nand really understand how Jesus wants to transform our lives.<\/p>\n

The technique to get below the surface
\nis a little free writing exercise
\nthat only takes ten minutes.<\/p>\n

Get a piece of paper and a pen,
\nand set a timer for ten minutes.
\nStart the timer and begin writing an answer to Jesus\u2019 question:
\n\u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d
\nThe key is to write for the entire ten minutes without stopping,
\nwithout picking the pen up from the paper,
\nnot thinking about spelling or grammar,
\nnot analyzing what you\u2019re writing,
\njust letting your mind run where it will
\nwhile you write what goes through it.<\/p>\n

At first, you\u2019ll probably write down familiar words and phrases,
\nbut after a while you\u2019ll start to run out of ideas.
\nThat\u2019s when the deeper answers will start to come out.
\nIt\u2019s important not to stop when you run out of ideas,
\nbut to keep the pen going.
\nIf your mind goes blank, just keep writing the last word you wrote
\nuntil you get more words.<\/p>\n

After the ten minutes is up,
\nyou\u2019ll have something authentic to think about,
\nsomething in your own words
\nto pray about
\nand to talk to Jesus about.<\/p>\n

The other practice is for when we have a hard time
\nanswering the question of who Jesus is
\nbecause we have lost touch with him.<\/p>\n

We all lose touch with Jesus from time to time
\nas the busyness of the world creeps in
\nor as we get caught up in other pursuits.<\/p>\n

One of the most honest answers we can give
\nto Jesus\u2019 question of \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d
\nis \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we find ourselves in that situation
\nthen we know it\u2019s time to reconnect with Jesus.
\nIt\u2019s time to ask the Holy Spirit to help us encounter Jesus.
\nAnd here\u2019s one way to do that:<\/p>\n

This only takes about ten minutes, too, by the way.
\nBring your Bible to a quiet spot where you can be alone.
\nOpen your Bible,
\nand choose any single event from the Gospels\u2014
\nJesus walking on water, healing the blind man,
\ntelling the parable of the Good Samaritan,
\nteaching his disciples to pray\u2014it doesn\u2019t matter which.
\nChoose just one,
\nand then briefly ask God for the grace
\nto encounter Jesus,
\nand read the Gospel story.<\/p>\n

As you read, try to enter into the story imaginatively,
\njust daydream about it for five minutes or so.
\nIn your imagination, observe what\u2019s happening;
\nlook, listen, walk around and pay attention to Jesus.
\nWhat is he doing, what is he saying?
\nWhen you\u2019re done thank God for this time with his Son.<\/p>\n

After you do this over the course of several days,
\nrevisit Jesus\u2019 question,
\n\u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d<\/p>\n

Chances are, you\u2019ll have an answer in your own words.<\/p>\n

This is what Jesus wants.
\nHe wants us to know him,
\nto really know him,
\nand not just words about him;
\nto be in a personal relationship with him
\nand to speak to him
\nin our own words<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Thanks to Fr. James Gilhooley for these references to Jesus.<\/h6>\n