Memory Care

Today’s gospel immediately brought my friends living on the Memory Care floor where I work to mind. They are a beautiful example of the main thing in today’s gospel, “Who do you say that I am?” One of the very first things I realized when I started doing music therapy in memory care is how important one’s name really is. Nothing engages the memory like a song especially from their past, but when we would sing their name in a song, lights would actually come on inside their eyes and their souls would leap up and down at the sound of their name. I remember the first time I experienced this beautiful surge of souls because it stopped me mid-song with tears and a giant lump in my throat. We all just want to be known and the calling of our name and even more, the singing of our name means that someone knows who we are. My friends have no idea who I am, but the important thing is that I know who they are and whose they are. Each one is a beloved child of God with a name and a soul and a life that gives my life its purpose. To recognize Christ living within them, even when they forget, is the great privilege of my life and all those that care for them. I’ve witnessed more compassion, more tenderness, more kindness, and more Jesus in the caretakers on the Memory Care floor than in any other “ministry” I have ever been a part of. So when Jesus asked his friends today, “Who do you say that I am?” it tugged at my heart because our identity is so very important that even the creator of the universe wants to know. 

Jesus wasn’t interested in what people in general had to say, he wanted to know who his intimate friends thought he was. I know for me I get caught up in what others think about me and I am constantly having to remember who do my friends and family say that I am for they are the ones that truly know me. So the question is, what category do you put yourself in this morning? “People in general” or “intimate friends” with Jesus? Several months ago a friend of mine challenged me to pray with this particular gospel by hearing Jesus say, “Jen, who do you say that I am?” and also asking him, “Jesus, who do you say that I am?” I was encouraged to journal my answers and at first it was difficult because I thought I was just making stuff up in my head and it seemed kind of forced, however, the more I practiced it, the more it became. I was challenged to do it for 30 days, but have kept doing it daily because I love telling Jesus who he is in my life and hearing him tell me who I am in his. There have been so many tender expressions in this daily exchange and my intimacy with Jesus has deepened in a way I could never have anticipated. This one question, “Who do you say that I am?” can soften hearts like no other for it is our identity in Christ that launches us into everything we do. In order to know ourselves, we must first know him, and in that knowing, our identity will light up, just like my memory care friends do when they hear their name sung in a song. 

There are days when I suffer from spiritual memory loss and forget who and whose I am in Jesus, so he gently sings my name, calling me back into intimacy with him, and he asks me, “Jen, who do you say that I am?” When I tell him, he tenderly responds with who he says that I am, and my forgetfulness is restored. One of my favorite daily exchanges with Jesus is, “Jesus, you are the love of my life. Jen, you are my favorite.”  It is vital for us to know who Jesus is so that we can know who we are. I encourage you to pray with these questions today and perhaps journal your response and Jesus’ response to you. Just like my friends in memory care, we might not remember who we are, but Jesus always recognizes us and he not only knows our name, he can sing our names in the most beautiful song so that our souls light up with being known. It is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 GN 9:1-13

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them:
“Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.
Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth
and all the birds of the air,
upon all the creatures that move about on the ground
and all the fishes of the sea;
into your power they are delivered. 
Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat;
I give them all to you as I did the green plants. 
Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.
For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting:
from every animal I will demand it,
and from one man in regard to his fellow man   
I will demand an accounting for human life.

If anyone sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
For in the image of God
has man been made.

Be fertile, then, and multiply;
abound on earth and subdue it.”

God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
“See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark.
I will establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;
there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.”
God added:
“This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, 
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth.”

Responsorial Psalm PS 102:16-18, 19-21, 29 AND 22-23

R. (20b)  From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
 The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer. 
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
“The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die.” 
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
The children of your servants shall abide,
and their posterity shall continue in your presence,
That the name of the LORD may be declared in Zion,
and his praise, in Jerusalem,
When the peoples gather together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.

Alleluia SEE JN 6:63C, 68C

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;
you have the words of everlasting life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 8:27-33

Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?”
They said in reply,
“John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets.”
And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said to him in reply,
“You are the Christ.”
 
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”