‘You are the Son of God’

Reading: Mark 3:7-12

The following homily was preached to the student brothers during Compline. You can listen here or read below:

In today’s Gospel we hear about the great crowds that follow Christ, so much so that he had to get in a boat and pass over to the other side. We see many different characters, many different ways in which Christ is encountered and how those characters respond to Christ. There are those that have been healed by him, those that want to reach out and touch him, and there are even demons that believe in him – ‘You are the Son of God’. ‘Even the demons believe this, and tremble’ (James 2:19). The question now becomes: what do we see when we see Christ? Who do we see? How do we respond?

There are many different ways of responding to our encounter with Christ. We may say that Jesus is just one among many, he’s a good man. We may say that ‘I believe I believe you are the Son of God’ but not follow. He is a good idea. But I dare say many of us are numb to an encounter with Christ. We live in an economy of distraction. Algorithms are designed to make us passive consumers of content, distracted and absorbed in a digital reality that faceless companies profit off.

We must ask ourselves truly: what do we seek? Perhaps we seek to travel, explore the world, mountains? There are mountains in God, and God can grant us the faith to move mountains. Perhaps we seek wealth? True wealth is to be rich in mercy. Look at the lilies of the field! Perhaps we seek fame and to be remembered. Let us pray the prayer of the dying thief, Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.

I do not for one second believe that each of us were created out of nothing just to be ordinary. I believe that the light of faith when lived concretely in a life of charity, opens to us the truth of creation and salvation: that we are invited into sharing in the very life of the Trinity through Christ. We may think that God is to be found in the great beyond, far removed from our everyday experiences. But if God were not able to act in the world, his love would not truly be powerful, truly real, or even true. The gift of faith is to see things as Jesus sees them, it is to participate in the life of Christ, it is to touch Him like the characters in the Gospel and be healed, restored, transformed into Christ. And so today we are invited to ask ourselves: who do you say he is? Lord I believe, help my unbelief.

Image: Calling of the Apostles by Domenico Ghirlandaio (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons).