The Heavens Stand Still | September 23, 2016

September 23, 2016

Jesus gets personal with us today. He knows what “they” think about who He is: John the Baptist, Elijah, and a real swell guy, right? Raise your hand if you have ever been misunderstood, labeled, or judged. If you raised your hand, then Jesus totally gets you. He knows who you are and who’s you are and today He wants to know who you say that He is. This is an eyelash-to-eyelash conversation between you and Jesus, between Jesus and me. This question is said to be the very heartbeat of the gospels and it is the turning point, the crucial conversion, the pivotal moment when Peter acknowledges Jesus as the Christ. All of humanity felt the gentle whisper brush across its face when Messiah was officially proclaimed, identified, and received. Like when the heavens stood still waiting for Mary’s response to the angel, all of creation with butterflies in its stomach, held onto the edge of their seats, hoping and praying that Peter would get it right. And he did!!

When we acknowledge Jesus as Savior, the universe stands still in awe and wonder with a collective surge of the soul that unites all. In my eyelash-to-eyelash conversation with Jesus today, he asked me, “Who do you, Jen, say that I am?” and I said, “You are all. I am yours and you are mine.” What is your response to this question that will make heaven’s heart skip a beat?

Here is a song that fits in perfectly with today’s theme. https://youtu.be/cEbQswNB6Wc

Have a blessed day.

Reading 1 ECCL 3:1-11

There is an appointed time for everything,
and a time for every thing under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them;
a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace.

What advantage has the worker from his toil?
I have considered the task that God has appointed
for the sons of men to be busied about.
He has made everything appropriate to its time,
and has put the timeless into their hearts,
without man’s ever discovering,
from beginning to end, the work which God has done.

Responsorial Psalm PS 144:1B AND 2ABC, 3-4

R. (1) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
my mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
LORD, what is man, that you notice him;
the son of man, that you take thought of him?
Man is like a breath;
his days, like a passing shadow.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!

Alleluia MK 10:45

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Son of Man came to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel LK 9:18-22

Once when Jesus was praying in solitude,
and the disciples were with him,
he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah;
still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’”
Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.”
He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone.

He said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”