{"id":29905,"date":"2024-09-15T12:08:20","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T16:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/?p=29905"},"modified":"2024-09-15T19:20:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T23:20:12","slug":"who-do-we-say-jesus-is-24th-sunday-b-september-15-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/who-do-we-say-jesus-is-24th-sunday-b-september-15-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Do We Say Jesus Is?, 24th Sunday (B), September 15, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fr. Roger J. Landry<br \/>\nColumbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan<br \/>\nTwenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B<br \/>\nSeptember 15, 2024<br \/>\nIs 50:5-9, Ps 116, James 2:14-18, Mk 8:27-35<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>To listen to an audio recording of today\u2019s homily, please click below:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-29905-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/catholicpreaching\/9.15.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/catholicpreaching\/9.15.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3\">https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/catholicpreaching\/9.15.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>The following text guided the homily:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Today in the Gospel Jesus asks his closest followers two related questions that are among the most important for students and any of us to get right. The first question is, \u201cWho do people say that I am?\u201d The apostles were eager to respond to this poll of what other people were thinking and saying. They informed Jesus that the multitudes were numbering him among the greatest Jewish heroes of all time, like the prophets Elijah and Jeremiah, and, more recently, John the Baptist. Some, of course, like many of the Scribes and Pharisees, were of a different opinion. They thought he was a blasphemer, a drunkard, a friend of sinners and even diabolical, working miracles by the power of the prince of demons. Others, like the Romans and their collaborators among the Sadducees and Herodians, thought Jesus was a dangerous man, perhaps a revolutionary. But none of these answers was the right one. Truth is not determined by polls, or by what people believe. Jesus was far greater than Elijah, Jeremiah and John the Baptist. He was greater than Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon. And it wasn\u2019t enough for him to have scores of \u201cfans\u201d and \u201cadmirers,\u201d because he hadn\u2019t come into the world to be a celebrity followed by millions but as a savior, and the first step in that salvation was for people to relate to him as he truly was.<\/li>\n<li>Similarly in our day, there remains great confusion about who Jesus is. Who do people say that Jesus is today? Most everyone knows about him. About 2.5 of the 8 billion people alive profess to be his followers. Muslims think he was just a prophet, like the other famous prophets in Jewish history. Many of the leading Jews, then and now, deem him, their fellow Jew, a heretic, blasphemer and leader of a schismatic sect. Most of the human race considers him a famous moral teacher, alongside Confucius, Buddha, Socrates, certain Hindu gurus, and various figures in own age like Ghandi, Martin Luther King and others. Various secularists, like the ancient Romans, thought he was a maverick rebel. Some regard him, out of dislike for his teaching, as a bad man, a loser, a judgmental misogynist, homophobe and transphobe, proto-Marxist, a pacifist, and rebel. As I mentioned last week, one Columbia professor in Contemporary Civilizations believes Jesus is a psychopath like Hitler or Lenin. Even among Christians, there are many who, rehearsing the Christological heresies of the first centuries, deny or underemphasize Jesus\u2019 divinity or humanity leading to all types of issues at the level of faith and morals.<\/li>\n<li>That\u2019s why it\u2019s never enough to remain at the level of what others say. It\u2019s never enough for us to consult Wikipedia or ChatGPT. It\u2019s never enough for us even to echo what the Catechism teaches, or the Doctors of the Church, Popes, Bishops, and saints have said, or what our parents, grandparents and godparents have taught us. All of that is helpful, but it\u2019s not sufficient. Just like Jesus does in the Gospel with his first followers, so he wants to do with us: to pass from the informative, \u201cWho do people say that I am?,\u201d to the highly personal and consequential query, \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d We Christians are those who profess that Christ is more than just a holy and good man, more than an inspiring prophet who announces ethical, even divine, words and ways. We are the people who confess, with Peter and the Church built on him, who Jesus really is, who Jesus himself says he is. This is the faith that brings us together: Jesus is not merely the long-awaited Messiah come to set us free, but the Son of God, who not only announces the words of God, but is their Author. As C.S. Lewis made famous in his classic <em>Mere Christianity<\/em>, it\u2019s really not sustainable that Jesus can remain just a great moral teacher, because he claimed to be the Son of God. This realization assisted in his own conversion from atheism to the Christian faith. Either Jesus is who he says he is, or he is a lunatic who crazily considered himself divine, or he is a diabolical liar who tried to pretend he was divine. Lewis writes, \u201cYou must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can \u2026 kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.\u201d The great Oxford don concludes, \u201cIt seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>When Jesus asked his second question in the Gospel, however, all but one of the apostles seemed to have come up with a case of sudden onset laryngitis. Whereas everyone was willing to share the results of the survey as to how others were identifying Jesus, in response to the question as to who each of them thought Jesus was, all but one lacked the courage to say anything out loud. I\u2019ve always been stunned that Nathaniel, a.k.a Barthlomew, didn\u2019t speak up. In his first conversation with Jesus, after Jesus said he had seen him under the fig tree, he exclaimed, \u201cRabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel\u201d (Jn 1:49). The latter meant he was the Messiah, the son of David the King; the former meant far more than the Messiah. But this time he timidly kept his mouth shut. Simon Peter, however, put out into the deep. God the Father had led him to recognize that Jesus was indeed much more even than what the others were saying and had the guts to be the first to say it. \u201cYou are the Christ!,\u201d he said. Christ, the Greek word for Messiah, communicated that Jesus was the long awaited one foretold by all the prophets. In St. Matthew\u2019s version of the scene, the former tax collector recalls Peter\u2019s also confessing Jesus, like Nathaniel, to be the very own Son of God. To make that admission was to bring into the foreground a whole series of expectations. The Messiah was to be the one who would bring back the Kingdom of David, who would kick out all foreign powers, who would return Israel to prominence. And as we see in other parts of the Gospel, Jesus\u2019 closest followers were all ambitiously hoping to receive choice positions in Jesus\u2019 messianic administration.<\/li>\n<li>That\u2019s why, as soon as Peter enunciated Jesus\u2019 true identity, Jesus began to teach them what type of Messiah he would be, how he would inaugurate his kingdom, and how they were share in and announce it. It blew their mind \u2014 and not in a good way. Rather than uniting the Jews and defeating and expelling the Romans, rather than leading the twelve tribes to triumph, he would instead suffer greatly, be rejected by the chief priests, the scribes and the elders and be publicly executed. He would fulfill the prophecies of the Suffering Servant Songs in Isaiah, which we heard in the first reading, in which he would give his back to those who beat him, his cheeks to those who plucked his beard, his face to those who would buffet him and spit on him. Jesus told them all of this \u201copenly,\u201d St. Mark tells us, so that there would be confusion or misinterpretation, but that they would all know it clearly. To get a sense of their shock, it would be like someone who had just won a Presidential election in his victory speech saying that, rather than lead his supporters and the country to prosperity, power and peace as they hoped, he would instead be seized by members of his party in conspiracy with the opposing parties and various foreign powers, be humiliated, tortured, and finally hung from the most famous national monument in the capital.<\/li>\n<li>But Peter, emboldened by his previous affirmation and obviously desiring not only to be the principal advisor of the Messiah but chief bodyguard, took Jesus aside and \u201cbegan to rebuke him.\u201d \u201cGod forbid anything like this should happen to you!,\u201d he said, according to St. Matthew\u2019s eyewitness account. He couldn\u2019t fathom that a Messiah would be rejected and killed rather than conquer. It was totally incompatible with Jewish Messianic expectations for the long-awaited one to suffer in this way. But Jesus wanted to help him and all of the apostles recognize that, yes, he was the Messiah, but his kingdom and the liberation he was bringing were far different than what they were expecting. He tells Peter not, \u201cGet away from me!\u201d but, \u201cGet behind me!\u201d Jesus wasn\u2019t ridding himself of Peter, but he was pointing out what Peter had been trying to do:\u00a0<em>lead\u00a0<\/em>the Lord rather than\u00a0<em>follow<\/em>the Lord. To tell him to get behind him was to make him a disciple rather than a roadblock. Jesus also told him the reason why he was behaving like an obstacle: \u201cYou are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.\u201d Peter was seeing only with human eyes, from human political aspirations and personal ambitions, rather than with the eyes of faith, the eyes that God seeks to give us.\u00a0Peter at first grasped what the crowds didn\u2019t, that Jesus wasn\u2019t just one of the prophets of old, but rather the Messiah. But Jesus was helping him to realize the type of Messiah he really is, rather than just Peter imagined he would be, so that Peter \u2014\u00a0and all the others \u2014\u00a0would be able to confess him in far greater depth.<\/li>\n<li>So Jesus called them all together and said that not only would he suffer, but if we sought to remain with him, we must suffer, too. These are among the most challenging words in the Gospel and therefore among those we are most tempted to water down and ignore. \u201cWhoever wishes to come after me,\u201d he said, whoever wants to share in his kingdom and reign with him, \u201cmust deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.\u201d As if that is not challenging enough, he adds: \u201cFor whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel, will save it.\u201d To use the analogy given before, Jesus was saying that anyone who wanted to support him would have to say no to worldly goals, pick up his own noose, and follow him to the national monument to be hung alongside him. But as the Church pondered and celebrated yesterday on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, the cross Jesus is asking us to assume is not fundamentally an instrument of torture, pain and suffering but a sign and means of the love that can make even that much pain and suffering bearable. Instead of being principally an instrument of torture, humiliation and death, for Christ and the Christian, the cross is a weapon of holiness, a sign of victory over selfishness, sin and the death to which they lead.<\/li>\n<li>Let\u2019s get to the practical applications of this dramatic encounter Jesus had with the apostles in Caesarea Philippi and has with each of us today at Columbia.<\/li>\n<li>The first lesson is we have to know our faith. In the context of so many who misidentify Jesus, we need to know that Jesus is not who most in the crowds today think he is. We need to know our faith well enough not to lose it in conversation with them, or in the classroom, or when someone with a religious studies doctorate pronounces the latest recycled heresy <em>du jour<\/em>. We likewise need to know our faith well enough to be able, like C.S. Lewis did at Oxford, and so many have done in other circumstances, patiently to show how such assertions don\u2019t cohere, are inadequate to the facts, and more.<\/li>\n<li>The second lesson is that we need to do more than know correctly who Jesus is and believe in him. We also need to have the courage, like St. Peter, to profess that faith publicly: to announce that Jesus is the long-awaited one, the eternal Son of God, savior, Lord, Good Shepherd, Good Samaritan, the Way, the Truth, the Resurrection and the Life, and the King of the Universe who has come to invite us into that eternal kingdom. It\u2019s hard sometimes to go on the record. In the midst of a cancel culture in which those who want to eliminate others have intimidated them in general to live as cowards, to betray Jesus and his teachings and in the process betray what\u2019s deepest about themselves, the Lord wants us to be the first, like Peter, to step up in his defense. Not to wait until someone else says it first, or until many say it, or until 50.1 percent of people say it. But in response to the grace of God who has helped us to see this most important truth in life, to say it so that others may come to know it and profess it, too. Jesus said in the Gospel, \u201cEveryone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father\u201d (Mt 10:32). He wants us not just to believe in him, not just to be a secret disciple, but to acknowledge him! St. Paul wrote to the first Christians in Rome that it wasn\u2019t enough just to believe in Jesus in our heart, but he said we need to \u201cconfess with [our] mouth that Jesus is Lord\u201d (Rom 10:9). Jesus wants us, he\u2019s counting on us, to do that here on campus. We know so many people who need Jesus just as much as we do, who are suffering without his light, who are doubling down on bad decisions, trying to seek solace, happiness and meaning down paths that will never lead there. They need the Divine Physician and are just waiting for us to make a persuasive referral. They know they need saving but they don\u2019t know yet where and how and to Whom to turn. That\u2019s one of the reasons why Jesus gave us the talents needed to get into Columbia, that\u2019s why we are alive and here right now. But Jesus doesn\u2019t want us just to say to <em>him<\/em> who we know he is, but to confess him to others, so that they might come to know him at the depth he out of love wants to be known.<\/li>\n<li>The third application is to put our confession into action. Our faith in Christ, however, must be more than something we believe in our heart and say on our lips. It must be something we proclaim by the way we live. That\u2019s why Jesus speaks to us about conforming our life to his, getting behind him rather than trying to lead him, thinking as he thinks rather than the crowds. Rather than affirming ourselves, Christ calls us to deny ourselves. Rather than fleeing from suffering, Christ tells us to seize the Cross and die out of love for God and others. Rather than doing our own thing, he tells us to follow him all the way. Rather than seeking to save our life by our own wits, he tells us that the only way to save it is to lose it in loving service of God and others, perhaps even to the point of death. That\u2019s the type of life St. James points to in today\u2019s second reading, when he distinguishes between living faith in Jesus and dead faith with no power to save. Our confession can\u2019t remain, he implies, just interior or verbal. It must translate into our body language. The apostle underlines, \u201cFaith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.\u201d If faith remains simply a thing of the head and doesn\u2019t affect the heart, the hands, the feet, and our choices, then it is powerless. If faith is alive, then it produces works of faith, it overflows into deeds of love (see Gal 5:6; 1 Cor 13:2). That\u2019s why St. James gets very practical, to help us to determine if our faith is alive, if our confession is consistent. \u201cIf a brother or sister,\u201d he states, \u201cis naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, \u2018Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,\u2019 and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?\u201d It\u2019s not enough, he\u2019s saying, that we be \u201cconcerned\u201d for others, that we sympathize or even empathize with those in difficult situations. We must act on that concern and compassion by doing what we can to help those in need. To have living faith we need to do more than know and approve of Jesus\u2019 statement, \u201cLove one another as I have loved you,\u201d but to put that Christ-like love into practice. There are people around us who do not have proper clothing, who lack daily food. There are many more people who are not \u201cclothed in Christ\u201d (Gal 3:27), who are malnourished and starving for the word of God. The question for us is: What are we trying to do about it? The same Lord who asks us, \u201cWho do you say that I am?,\u201d then tells us, \u201cI was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you gave me welcome, naked and you gave me clothing, ill and you gave me comfort, in prison and you visited me.\u201d Our faith, if it is alive, must translate into the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Every time we do, we are confessing that Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God, lives. Every time we don\u2019t even try, we may be confessing that our faith is dying or dead. As Jesus says today, we must \u201close\u201d ourselves to gain life. We must die to ourselves and allow God to raise us from the dead. We must unselfishly give ourselves for others. This is Christianity. This is the Gospel.<\/li>\n<li>So the question recurs. Jesus asks each of us: \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d Who do we say he is on Sunday? Who do we say he is on Friday and Saturday nights? Who do we say he is when we go to bed and wake up? Who do we say he is in the classroom, or the sports field, or at our internships? Who do we say he is with our friends? Who do we say he is on Instagram and social media? Who do we say he is when we meet him in the distressing disguise of the poor and needy? Who do we say he is when we\u2019re underdoing temptations? Together with God the Father, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to help us profess him, with integrity and consistency, at all times of our life, to make our whole life a response to his question. There have been times of course in each of our lives when we haven\u2019t lived up to professing Jesus as he deserves, but tonight is a chance for us to renew our commitment to proclaim our faith in him full-time, with boldness, just like Peter and the other apostles did after Pentecost. Our cooperation with the grace of God tonight to commit to that is one way for us to know if our faith is truly alive.<\/li>\n<li>Every Mass we\u2019re given the opportunity to confess who Christ is. Here we profess that he has the words of eternal life as we listen to him speak to us in the Liturgy of the Word. Here we likewise have the awesome gift to be able to proclaim him in the Holy Eucharist. During this Eucharistic Revival, it\u2019s important for us to grasp that our response to Jesus in the Eucharist manifests our reply to the question he poses in the Gospel. If we confess the Eucharistic Jesus to be the Messiah and Son of God, then we will seek to order our whole life to the fulfillment of the Last Supper, Calvary and the Empty Tomb, which is our Eucharistic communion with him. To live a Eucharistic life is to imitate Jesus\u2019 outpouring on Calvary, to stop thinking as human beings do but as Jesus does, and to stop acting like all the rest, but to imitate Jesus, to follow Jesus, and to collaborate with him for the salvation of the world. When Jesus is lifted up at the consecration, when he\u2019s shown as the Lamb of God, hear him tonight whispering to you, \u201cWho do you say that I am?,\u201d and respond interiorly in preparation for responding publicly, \u201cYou are the Christ! You are the Son of the Living God! You are my Savior! You are my Good Shepherd! You are my Way, my Truth, my Life!\u201d Blessed indeed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>The readings for today\u2019s Mass were:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"cs_control_3684\" class=\"cs_control CS_Element_Textblock\">\n<div class=\"CS_Textblock_Text\">\n<div class=\"bibleReadingsWrapper\">\n<h4>Reading 1 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/readings\/bible\/Isaiah\/50:5\">IS 50:5-9A<\/a><\/h4>\n<div class=\"poetry\">The Lord GOD opens my ear that I may hear;<br \/>\nand I have not rebelled,<br \/>\nhave not turned back.<br \/>\nI gave my back to those who beat me,<br \/>\nmy cheeks to those who plucked my beard;<br \/>\nmy face I did not shield<br \/>\nfrom buffets and spitting.The Lord GOD is my help,<br \/>\ntherefore I am not disgraced;<br \/>\nI have set my face like flint,<br \/>\nknowing that I shall not be put to shame.<br \/>\nHe is near who upholds my right;<br \/>\nif anyone wishes to oppose me,<br \/>\nlet us appear together.<br \/>\nWho disputes my right?<br \/>\nLet that man confront me.<br \/>\nSee, the Lord GOD is my help;<br \/>\nwho will prove me wrong?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"cs_control_228452\" class=\"cs_control CS_Element_Textblock\">\n<div class=\"CS_Textblock_Text\">\n<div class=\"bibleReadingsWrapper\">\n<h4>Responsorial Psalm <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/psalms\/116:1\">PS 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9<\/a><\/h4>\n<div class=\"poetry\">R. (9) <strong>I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.<\/strong><br \/>\nor:<br \/>\nR. <strong>Alleluia.<\/strong><br \/>\nI love the LORD because he has heard<br \/>\nmy voice in supplication,<br \/>\nbecause he has inclined his ear to me<br \/>\nthe day I called.<br \/>\nR. <strong>I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.<\/strong><br \/>\nor:<br \/>\nR. <strong>Alleluia.<\/strong><br \/>\nThe cords of death encompassed me;<br \/>\nthe snares of the netherworld seized upon me;<br \/>\nI fell into distress and sorrow,<br \/>\nand I called upon the name of the LORD,<br \/>\n\u201cO LORD, save my life!\u201d<br \/>\nR. <strong>I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.<\/strong><br \/>\nor:<br \/>\nR. <strong>Alleluia.<\/strong><br \/>\nGracious is the LORD and just;<br \/>\nyes, our God is merciful.<br \/>\nThe LORD keeps the little ones;<br \/>\nI was brought low, and he saved me.<br \/>\nR. <strong>I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.<\/strong><br \/>\nor:<br \/>\nR. <strong>Alleluia.<\/strong><br \/>\nFor he has freed my soul from death,<br \/>\nmy eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.<br \/>\nI shall walk before the Lord<br \/>\nin the land of the living.<br \/>\nR. <strong>I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.<\/strong><br \/>\nor:<br \/>\nR. <strong>Alleluia.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"cs_control_228454\" class=\"cs_control CS_Element_Textblock\">\n<div class=\"CS_Textblock_Text\">\n<div class=\"bibleReadingsWrapper\">\n<h4>Reading 2 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/readings\/bible\/James\/2:14\">JAS 2:14-18<\/a><\/h4>\n<div class=\"poetry\">What good is it, my brothers and sisters,<br \/>\nif someone says he has faith but does not have works?<br \/>\nCan that faith save him?<br \/>\nIf a brother or sister has nothing to wear<br \/>\nand has no food for the day,<br \/>\nand one of you says to them,<br \/>\n\u201cGo in peace, keep warm, and eat well, \u201d<br \/>\nbut you do not give them the necessities of the body,<br \/>\nwhat good is it?<br \/>\nSo also faith of itself,<br \/>\nif it does not have works, is dead.Indeed someone might say,<br \/>\n\u201cYou have faith and I have works.\u201d<br \/>\nDemonstrate your faith to me without works,<br \/>\nand I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.<\/p>\n<h4>Alleluia <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/readings\/bible\/galatians\/6:14\">GAL 6:14<\/a><\/h4>\n<p>R. <strong>Alleluia, alleluia.<\/strong><br \/>\nMay I never boast except in the cross of our Lord<br \/>\nthrough which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.<br \/>\nR. <strong>Alleluia, alleluia.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"cs_control_228453\" class=\"cs_control CS_Element_Textblock\">\n<div class=\"CS_Textblock_Text\">\n<div class=\"bibleReadingsWrapper\">\n<h4>Gospel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/readings\/bible\/mark\/8:27\">MK 8:27-35<\/a><\/h4>\n<div class=\"poetry\">Jesus and his disciples set out<br \/>\nfor the villages of Caesarea Philippi.<br \/>\nAlong the way he asked his disciples,<br \/>\n\u201cWho do people say that I am?\u201d<br \/>\nThey said in reply,<br \/>\n\u201cJohn the Baptist, others Elijah,<br \/>\nstill others one of the prophets.\u201d<br \/>\nAnd he asked them,<br \/>\n\u201cBut who do you say that I am?\u201d<br \/>\nPeter said to him in reply,<br \/>\n\u201cYou are the Christ.\u201d<br \/>\nThen he warned them not to tell anyone about him.He began to teach them<br \/>\nthat the Son of Man must suffer greatly<br \/>\nand be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,<br \/>\nand be killed, and rise after three days.<br \/>\nHe spoke this openly.<br \/>\nThen Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.<br \/>\nAt this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,<br \/>\nrebuked Peter and said, \u201cGet behind me, Satan.<br \/>\nYou are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.\u201dHe summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,<br \/>\n\u201cWhoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,<br \/>\ntake up his cross, and follow me.<br \/>\nFor whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,<br \/>\nbut whoever loses his life for my sake<br \/>\nand that of the gospel will save it.\u201d<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/image.jpg.webp?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-29901\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/image.jpg.webp?resize=300%2C160&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_7997\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-29905-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/catholicpreaching\/9.15.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/catholicpreaching\/9.15.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3\">https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/catholicpreaching\/9.15.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/catholicpreaching\/9.15.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/?powerpress_pinw=29905-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/catholicpreaching\/9.15.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"9.15.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fr. Roger J. Landry Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B September 15, 2024 Is 50:5-9, Ps 116, James 2:14-18, Mk 8:27-35 \u00a0 To listen to an audio recording of today\u2019s homily, please click below:\u00a0 https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/catholicpreaching\/9.15.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3 \u00a0 The following text guided the homily:\u00a0 Today in the Gospel Jesus [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13767,1063,3,12314,7],"tags":[12477,1795,8620,11159,6955,1866,4747,974,975,976,8621,574,11158],"class_list":["post-29905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-2024","category-audio-homily","category-homily","category-podcast","category-year-b","tag-cancel-culture","tag-cross","tag-deny-yourself","tag-faith-and-works","tag-faith-without-works-is-dead","tag-follow-me","tag-get-behind-me-satan","tag-is-505-9","tag-james-214-18","tag-mk-827-35","tag-pick-up-your-cross","tag-ps-116","tag-you-are-the-messiah"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Who Do We Say Jesus Is?, 24th Sunday (B), September 15, 2024 - Catholic Preaching<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/who-do-we-say-jesus-is-24th-sunday-b-september-15-2024\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Do We Say Jesus Is?, 24th Sunday (B), September 15, 2024 - Catholic Preaching\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fr. 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