“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Before you start reading, I want you to reflect for a short moment and ask yourself...

Who do you say that Jesus is?

In the gospel, Jesus was praying together with his disciples and He asked them who do they say that He is. The people randomly answered John the Baptist and Elijah... Some people from the crowd even answered that Jesus was an old prophet who has risen. After hearing what the people had said, Jesus shortly asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter immediately answered, "The Christ of God." After this, Jesus tells them that a time will come when the Son of Man must suffer, that He will be rejected by the elders and chief priests, that He will be killed, but will rise again on the 3rd day. Jesus said to them, "If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake, will save it." 

Through this gospel, Jesus tells us that what we believe in and what we truly know about God are what truly matters to Him. Remember that in life, a lot of people will test you and shake you from the truth of who Jesus truly is. I, myself struggle to hold on to what I believe because of a lot of reasons: financial struggle, doubts about my career, and misunderstandings in relationships. Despite these reasons, in my book, if you surrender everything to Jesus, He will ALWAYS give you what you need. Know that when life isn't what it seems, it's because He has better plans for you.

At the end of the gospel, Jesus already knew in an instant what will happen to Him, and He immediately told the disciples what He knew. Personally, I really did not know at first what was the connection of Jesus' better plans and the prediction of His death, but after moments of prayer and reflection, I realized that even though we belong in a Youth Ministry under a Catholic Community full of disciples, just like Simon Peter, we are also sinners. As sinful as we are, we sometimes fail to come after the Lord. There are some points in our lives that we forget to pickup our crosses and follow Jesus. Yes, my dear friends, we are sinners, but because of the sacrifice He did for us, we are saved. Because of His love and mercy, salvation is found. Through humiliation, suffering, and death, Jesus conquered sin and death and has given us Salvation! Let us share to the people that we have encountered Christ's victory!

Now let me ask you again...

Who do you say that Jesus is?

Blessed Sunday everyone!😉

- Neil Edjic

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SUNDAY REFLECTION (Jn 6:60-69)

        The gospel for today highlights the challenging nature of Jesus' teachings, and the importance of faith in truly understanding and accepting them.       Many of Jesus' own disciples found his words about the necessity of his body and blood for eternal life to be "hard" or difficult to accept. This shows that we humans tend to struggle with concepts that go beyond our natural understanding while Jesus’ teachings often had a deeper spiritual meaning that only Jesus or God knows. This also shows that faith is necessary in order to fully accept Jesus’ teachings, and that it is not enough to simply hear the words - we must also be willing to put our faith in them.      Ultimately, this gospel reminds us that following Jesus requires willingness and faith to understand the challenging truths of his teachings, and to rely on God's Spirit to guide our understanding. It's a call to a deeper level of commitment, beyond the surface level of discipleship. - Adrian
Read more

SUNDAY REFLECTION (Mk 7:18, 14-15, 21-23)

   The Gospel passage addresses how the Pharisees and scribes were upset because Jesus’ followers didn’t follow the tradition of washing their hands before eating. They were more concerned about it because the Pharisees believed this washing was necessary to stay “pure” and “clean”. However, Jesus tells them that they are focusing too much on these man-made rules; they are misguided by it, but Jesus explains that it is not what we do outside but rather what really matters is what is inside our hearts; this includes our thoughts, intentions, and actions that come from within and what really makes a person unclean and impure isn’t how they don’t wash before eating but the bad thoughts and actions that come within their hearts.         In essence, Jesus is teaching us to prioritize our inner transformation over external conformity. Reminding us that purity comes from having a good heart. As 1 Samuel 16:7 says, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lor
Read more

Us and Our God Against the World

Just like when we trust God, we know that He'll always be with us through our hardships. Once we realize that it is not us against the world; rather, it's us and our God against the world, we suddenly realize that we don't have to go through this life alone. We should be accepting of others around us because we were made in God's image. We may overcome previously insurmountable obstacles if we have complete faith that someone will be there for us in our hour of need. - Charlz Racel Dela Cruz
Read more