Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time Yr 1 2025
Ordinary Time • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 8 viewsTwo texts give two approaches to being like Jesus. Two millennia before Jesus the Patriarchs show us the way of reconciliation and magnanimity. Jesus gives us a call to speak his words despite opposition. He says, Do not fear. in the face of rejection and death. The call is to do this out of trust. We can choose which example is relevant to us; the important thing is to follow it so we hear Jesus’ recognition, “You are mine. You became like your Teacher. Welcome into my Father’s house.”
Notes
Transcript
Title
Title
It is Enough for the Disciple to become like his Teacher
Outline
Outline
Some people anticipate our Teacher
Some people anticipate our Teacher
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob achieve a level of reconciliation with their wives in death that they did not have in life. Especially touching is Jacob’s, “there, too, I buried Leah.” The wife he rejected for her sister he is one with in death.
Joseph even more anticipates Jesus, for he not only has forgiven his brothers before they ask him, but he does it because of his sense of Providence, “Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve this present end, the survival of many people.” And then he promises continued care for his brothers and their families. His one request at death is not immediate burial in Canaan as Jacob had made, but a prophetic waiting until his bones would be carried with the Israelites to Canaan.
We are called to be like our teacher including his suffering
We are called to be like our teacher including his suffering
This includes being called the devil, this is based on knowing that the truth will be revealed even if it is in the final judgment, this means being truth tellers of the truth Jesus speaks, not unmasking the sins of others, this culminates in having no fear of death - I think of our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, Gaza and vicinity, Ukraine and the like.
How can we do this? Because we know that God knows and values us and will let nothing happen for our ultimate harm, because we know that Jesus will acknowledge us before his Father (versus “I never knew you”). Trust in God gives us boldness in proclaiming God.
So we have seen two approaches to being like our Teacher Jesus
So we have seen two approaches to being like our Teacher Jesus
One is that of reconciliation and forgiveness that the Patriarchs lived out as far before Jesus as we are after.
The other is boldly confessing Jesus and speaking his teaching in clear if gentle words and doing so because we trust in God and in the resurrection and eternal reward. We really believe that we will hear, “You are mind. Enter into the joy of your Lord.” So even death or the threat of death cannot deter us.
Which is relevant to your life now? Focus on it out of love for Jesus so as to have a future with him.
