Friday of 6th Week in Ordinary Time

 

Faith Demands Deeds          

Today, we have in the first reading one of the most important passages of James: faith demands commitment – or, as Jesus will say in the Gospel, consistent discipleship. “Faith without works is a dead faith,” a mere belief in theoretical tenets. Sometimes, James is opposed to Paul – that was Luther’s main difficulty – because Paul says we are saved by faith, not works. Both take “works” in a different sense. “Works” for Paul is the observance of the Jewish practices of the old Law, from which the Christian is liberated, but for the follower of Christ, says Paul, faith works through love, through adherence to Christ. So, let our faith shine in works of love and service.

Being a disciple of Jesus implies journeying with Jesus on the way of the cross. Christians, followers of Christ, are people marked with the cross. We make the sign of the cross not merely symbolically when we pray but also in real life, whether we like it or not. We have to learn to accept the cross with Jesus.

 

First Reading: James 2:14-24; 26

Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

 I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.”

Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.

Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham “made right with God by works” when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are “works of faith”? The full meaning of “believe” in the Scripture sentence, “Abraham believed God and was set right with God,” includes his action. It’s that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named “God’s friend.” Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?

The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn’t her action in hiding God’s spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.

 

Gospel: Mark 8:34-9:1 

Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?

 “If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you’ll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendour of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels.”

Then he drove it home by saying, “This isn’t pie in the sky by and by. Some of you who are standing here are going to see it happen, see the kingdom of God arrive in full force.”

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
we believe in you with all our being.
Let this faith never be a lifeless belief
in abstract truths outside ourselves,
but a deep personal commitment
to your Son, Jesus Christ.
Give us the courage, we pray you,
to live for our brothers and sisters
and if need be to lose our life for them
and for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
who lives with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Reflection:

God does not deny nor reject us.

Evangelist Mark is making the point that the message of Jesus is important particularly for the readers of his community. The fate of Jesus was to be the fate also of those who would follow him. While writing the Gospel, Mark was still so much affected by the Crucifixion that had happened over 20 years ago. That’s why he makes references to “taking up the cross,” although Jesus had not yet explicitly stated that he would be killed by crucifixion.

Today we may not realise the brutality of the word “cross.” Over the centuries, the idea of cross has become spiritualised and today, we use it to refer to all the difficulties and inconveniences that come across our path of life. In the time of Jesus, and of Mark, this word had only one meaning – brutal killing. Death by crucifixion was reserved for political offences. It was the fate of rebels. To the minds of people of that era, crucifixion was the most shameful, dehumanising and excruciatingly painful and prolonged death imaginable.

The cross was understood clearly as the symbol of resistance to Rome. In this context, the word “Cross” was relevant more to disciples who were being persecuted under the Roman rule. By writing this passage, Mark was giving a warning to his community in Rome to be prepared to face that possibility of being brutally killed for their faith in Jesus.

Mark emphasised the possibility of loss of life for the members of his own community. Their losing of lives would happen gradually. Jesus asked his disciples to deny their selfish selves, to give way to more genuine, more deeply human needs: the good news that Jesus had come to make real.

Losing one’s life would also mean the experience of denying one’s ego, denying one’s selfishness. This death of the ego and death of selfishness are basic conditions for the life that Jesus offers. In Jesus’ mind, this denial of the self would be the absolute necessary condition for becoming genuinely human.

Care should be taken not to mistake the meaning of Jesus’ saying that “If anyone is ashamed of me and of my words… the Son of Man also be ashamed of him when he comes in the Glory of his Father.” It does not mean that Jesus is revengeful. Peter had denied Jesus in front of the people, during the trial of Jesus… not just once, but thrice. Yet, Jesus did not reject him, instead made him the head of the apostles.

Jesus call us to love our enemies, to be ready for the cross, to give up everything for the poor. Failing to do that is to deny Jesus, yet still he waits for our return.

 

Video available on Youtube: God does not deny nor reject us.