Perseverance and Identity
I want to explore two notable aspects of the readings today. The first is perserverance. Isaiah lays his case before God. He has
been reviled, humiliated, and abused. His back has been thoroughly whipped, his
beard roughly plucked, and his face spat upon. Today, we might reserve this
treatment only for rapists and pedophiles; this is a thought worth remembering,
as the fallout of the sexual abuse scandals within our church rage on. It is
very likely that the suffering of Isaiah will be laid on anyone who lifts high
a Catholic faith. We may ask, where does the prophet get the strength to
persevere? Here we see that it is in hope. Not of what the Lord has done, but
that the Lord will not allow the
righteous man to be put to shame. We suffer now without any evidence that
things will become better. No evidence, except hope.
The second is identity. Jesus asks, “who do they say I am?”
The revilers, the humiliates, the abusers. That vast network of people sharing
the same tired ideas. The constant babble of theories, and “provocative”
statements held by far too many people to have any punch: the atheist who calls
all the faithful deluded. The agnostic who puts on a reasonable tone before
letting mushy statements about how all belief is basically the same and good dribble
from their mouths. The ex-religious who mistakes personal problems with
universal truth. They say that Jesus is in the old line of thinkers and
preachers. Jesus, the latest national best-selling preacher, and miracle-healer
to boot. Come for a great lecture, free lunch, and an eye exam.
And so, the follow-up question: “who do you say I am?” The faithful, the daunted, the ones clinging to the
truth like sailors on flotsam. Our words stumble. We fail from the inside as
well as the outside. We recognize the Judases amongst us. We do not know
exactly what to say to the outside. We know what to say to Jesus. He is the
Christ. “Christ is Jesus’ last name?” My 5 year old nephew asks me. As we get
older in our faith, we might begin to question what the title “Christ” means.
Mind! I don’t mean the “definition of Christ.” You can look that up in the
bible dictionary, or just Google it for that matter. No, what we might wonder
is what does it mean to be the
Christ.
It turns out, it means to suffer, and persevere. We should gain some comfort from this. After all, we are "Christians," or those like Christ. We get our share of the crap sandwich. But my brothers and sisters, do not run away. Do not say, "it's easier to be moderate in my beliefs. To just keep shut up and secret about it. Even to laugh with the others and the derisive jokes. Why not?" We have a job to do here, and it is normally those who put in their labor at the field who get the reward of the Lord's help.
By: Evan Underbrink
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