My brothers and sisters, each of our readings today describe what faith is and what faith should look like.  May our faith be inspired and convicted by the word of God in today’s readings.  In our Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples the all-important question of faith- who do you say that I am?  Who is Jesus Christ?  That is a question we all need to answer for ourselves. 

Our 2nd reading also talks about another aspect of faith. St James asks if faith without works is really able to save a person?  In essence, James is pointing out just because one says they believe in something, does that mean that belief effects their life, even their salvation?  Something we all should think about today.  Does our faith effect our life?  Does faith effect salvation?  Each of these are questions we must answer for ourselves, and in this homily, I will answer them from the Catholic perspective.   But before we dive more in depth into the readings and what should be the answers, I think it is helpful to think about the different notions of faith used by people today.

There are many different ideas of what faith might look like.  One idea is what I’ll call nominal faith- or faith in name only.  Some examples of this might be: If someone who claims to be Christian is asked, “what is Jesus’ last name”- and they answer “Christ”- can that person say they know Jesus Christ?  If someone claims to be Christian- but they continuously break the commandments and don’t come to Church- can that faith save him?  If someone who claims to be Christian doesn’t read the bible or know much of anything about their faith, what kind of name are they giving to Christianity?  If someone asks a Christian- show me the works of your faith, or show me the evidence you are a Christian- and they say- well I try to be nice to others and I give to the poor.  If their evidence of faith is what can be said of atheists- can that faith save him? Jesus calls us to life-changing and life-saving faith.

Our Gospel begins with Jesus and his disciples walking through the city of Caesarea Philippi, which was named by Herod’s son Phillip in honor of Caesar Augustus, who was considered a god.  This city had been a place of long time pagan worship of Baal and other false gods.  Perhaps they were walking by the large marble temple dedicated to Caesar, when Jesus first asks his disciples who others say that He is.  The disciples answer by saying some believe Jesus was one of the common prophets or spiritual leaders they’ve known.  By first asking what others were thinking, Jesus was pulling the faith of the disciples out from them.  Jesus asked his disciples- who do you say that I am?  Jesus wanted to see if they believed in Him and were willing to be set apart from others in their belief.

Peter, the spokesman for the disciples, proclaimed- “You are the Christ”.  Peter confessed his faith that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Son of God.  Peter was willing to boldly declare his faith in front of others and in even in front of Jesus, because he knew he wasn’t wrong.  He was willing to confess so boldly because he had left everything behind and followed Jesus.  Peter spent years following him, listening to his every word and watched Jesus’ every action and miraculous healing, through which Jesus declared that He is the Son of God.  The more Peter spent following Jesus confirmed the truth of his faith.  Peter shows that one can’t be a Christian in name only, one can’t confess their faith unless they spend time in relationship with Jesus.  For us, we need to read the Bible, read the same stories in the Gospels which Peter witnessed, so that we can witness for ourselves.  We need to spend time with God in prayer which confirms our faith as we see Jesus’ activity in our lives.

Our Gospel goes on to say that after Peter confessed his faith that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus goes on to teach his disciples that the “Son of Man will be rejected by the religious leaders, suffer, die, but then rise from the dead”.  The Gospel writer Mark then confirms Jesus’ perplexing statement by adding “He spoke this openly”.  Indeed, Jesus announcing what would happen to him must have been confusing to the disciples.  In fact, Peter goes on to rebuke Jesus’ statement.  Why wouldn’t they be confused, after all, Peter just finished confessing the truth that Jesus is the Son of God.  So they must have been thinking- ‘how can God die?’.  Jesus goes on to further explain.  In doing so, in this situation, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man, as he says “the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected”.  Whenever you read Son of Man in the Bible, you can think that the humanity of Jesus is being emphasized, whereas Son of God emphasizes Jesus’ divinity.  What Jesus, in essence, is telling us is that whatever might happen to the body, even if the body might suffer greatly, nothing can destroy the soul.  Even if the physical human body might die, the divine soul will never die.  So don’t worry as much about the body, as you do the soul.

And my brothers and sisters, for us who believe that Jesus is divine, and for us who are baptized and share in the divinity of Christ, we need to keep that in mind.  Jesus goes on to say that his disciples, those who call themselves Christians, will indeed follow Christ, even to the point of suffering.  We too will suffer, but we must not worry about the body so much and let the divine soul within persevere us through in life, all the way to eternal life. 

We are called to have the kind of faith that will not waver in the midst of adversity.  Listen again to our 1st reading from Isaiah, “I have not rebelled, have not turned back.  I gave my back to those who beat me.  My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.  The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced, knowing that I shall not be put to shame”.  Do we have that kind of faith?

And finally, our 2nd reading states that our faith must be demonstrated by our works.  That our faith must be put into action.  Yes that action includes acts of charity for the good of others, but the first work, the first action of our faith must be submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  We must allow our faith to influence every aspect of our lives.  Through prayer we must unite our wills to the divine will of God, the will that desires our salvation and the salvation of others.  We are called to follow Christ even if the will of God is for us to suffer, to follow Jesus all the way through the Cross to eternal life with and in Him.  May our prayer and our worship in this Mass increase and deepen our faith.

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