THE QUESTION WE ARE AFRAID TO ASK.

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR B.
September 24, 2006.
(First Reading: Wisdom 2:12, 17-20) (Second Reading: James 3:16-4:3)
(Gospel Reading: Mark 9:30-37).

THE QUESTION WE
ARE AFRAID TO ASK.

There is a question the disciples of Jesus were afraid to ask. This Sunday's gospel describes the circumstances: "Jesus was teaching his disciples and telling them: 'The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise'. But they did not understand, and they were afraid to question him" (Mark 9:31-32).

Why were the disciples afraid to ask questions?, What frightened them to the point that they refrained themselves from asking questions?
The disciples heard the statement and knew that they were followers of Jesus, therefore they drew a logical conclusion: If the world kills the leader, it is most likely that the followers will suffer the same fate. It was better, at this time, for the disciples not to try to understand the Lord's statement; it was better for the disciples to ignore it, to change the subject; or, maybe, to dismissed it as unacceptable for, after all, who would want to kill a righteous man?

Like Jesus, Christians after him live in a world which continues to kill a righteous man.

We Christians of the XXI Century must ask Jesus the question the disciples were afraid to ask: Lord, why would the world want to kill you?

We find the answer to this question in the Book of Wisdom: The wicked say: "Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doing, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violation of our training" (Wisdom 2:12-14). This, most likely, would have been the answer of Jesus had his disciples asked him. And, today his answer remains the same.

Why would the world want to kill Jesus? Because what Jesus brought to humanity was in open contradiction with the ways of the world, and it remains the same to this very day.

The Letter of Saint James speaks of what Jesus brings to us and what the world brings to us:
- Jesus brings to us the Wisdom of God which "is first of all, pure, them peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity" (James 3:17). Jesus brings to man the fruit of righteousness which "is sown in peace for those who cultivate in peace" (James 3:18).

- The world brings to us "Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition... disorder and every foul practice", it brings to us war and conflict which happen when men "covet but do not possess, ... kill and envy but cannot obtain" (James 3:14-16, 4:2)

The Church Follows Jesus.
If Jesus was persecuted by the world, so will the Church.

The Church does not suffer persecution for the sake of persecution but because the Church brings the Wisdom of God to the world.

The Church today must be ever so mindful of the contradictions between Jesus and the world in which we live. These contradictions must be brought to light for all men to see.

As the Church denounces the evils of the world and reveals Christ to the world, the Church needs to keep in mind the following considerations:
1. All forms of evil are to be denounced, the evils that exist in all aspects of human life (economic, social, political, moral, military aspects, etc.). It has been a historical mistake for the Church to focus or limit its denunciation of evil only to certain aspects of life, i.e. human sexuality.

2. The failure to denounce all the evils of our world would place our Church in a worldly comfortable situation, but it would make it an accomplice of the world, and it would be a betrayal to Jesus.

3. The revelation of the truth of Jesus has to be made to all human beings, without exception, otherwise the Church will run the risk of becoming just another institution at the services of a particular group in society.

We, Christians and men of good will, must demonstrate that we no longer are afraid to ask the Lord Jesus the question: Why would the world want to kill you? because the Lord has revealed to us that: "Three days after his death the Son of Man will rise".