livingtheword

Download 12th Sunday Yr C 

Reflection Questions

1. The Old Testament readings are often fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament Gospel Reading. Hadadrimmon is the special mourning place for King Josiah who called his people to change and repentance but was killed in battle in the plain of Megiddo. Have you experienced a special place where you ʻturnedʼ to God?
2. Paul writes to the community in Galatia and is upset with Jewish Christians misleading newly baptised people. He writes to them teaching them that obeying all the Jewish Laws does not ʻsaveʼ us. We need to get the right starting point of our relationship with God. Do you think more about what you could do for God (obedience to the law), or what God has done for you in Christ (unmerited and unconditional love for sinners through his saving death on the cross)? What is the correct starting point for Paul and why?
3. Paul writes in this letter using a very early baptismal prayer. All barriers of culture and race (Jews / Greeks), gender (male / female), social standing (slave or free) have been dissolved by baptism and following Christ. What barriers and walls between people upset you? What barriers are present in your own life / attitudes?
4. It is strange that Jesus rebukes Peter for his answer. Jesus wants them to be silent before they truly understand what type of messiah / Christ Jesus is. It will not be the military glory of public expectation but a suffering messiah who is rejected and killed before rising again. This requires a completely new mind-set. For Jewish people and Jesusʼ followers it was shameful to suffer and die. It is the obstacle that Jews cannot overcome. Jesus therefore cannot be the Messiah. What do you think?
5. Jesus speaks now to ʻallʼ followers to take up oneʼs cross. The wooden ʻcrossʼ in Jesusʼ time was an instrument of death used to kill revolutionaries. It is shocking for Jesus to tell his followers they must ʻtake it upʼ. Have you ever thought of Jesusʼ requiring his disciples to be radical revolutionaries and being willing to ʻdieʼ for his values? What does ʻtake up your cross mean to you?
6. The context of Jesusʼ words are not of a one time martyrdom or death, but a ʻdailyʼ sacrificial living. And it is not ʻdaily burdensʼ but something far deeper. Jesus invites disciples into the posture of a condemned person awaiting a death sentence. No worldly attachments are present now. Everything is stripped away by the ʻdeathʼ sentence to ʻselfʼ. There is to be no holding back. Have you ever considered religious or priestly life as a deeply freeing experience of letting go to give ʻall to Christʼ? What excites or scares you about such a call?
7. What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?