September 16 - Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Where Sorrow is there is holy ground

 

First Reading  Isaiah 50:5-9a

The suffering servant of Yahweh is assured of God's help.

 

Responsorial Psalm  Psalm 116:1-2,3-4,5-6,8-9

A prayer of praise to God for his salvation

Second Reading  James 2:14-18
James teaches that faith must be demonstrated in one's works.

 Gospel Reading
Mark 8:27-35

 The Christian under sanding of Christ has to include the idea of suffering, death and resurrection. To attempt to hold Jesus back from his divinely ordained path is to play Satan's game to frustrate God's gift of life to the world through the costly "service" he must render. In the same way we are called to 'get behind him' in the sense of following him along "his way" rather than standing "in his way". We know that suffering and sorrow are a part of life. There's no way we can escape them. The important thing isn't the sorrow that befall us but how we respond to them. The important thing is what we do about them. We can turn them into something constructive, not destructive. We can turn them into something that is life-giving and not death-dealing. we can turn them into something that makes us better, not bitter. Let the Lord have His way and let us follow that path in trust.