Catholic Education Sunday Homily – Part 1: Who Is Jesus?
This article is the first part of the homily preached by Fr Adrian Danker SJ at the Mass commemorating Catholic Education Sunday, held on 11 September 2021.
“Who do you say I am?”
Jesus asks His disciples this question in today’s Gospel. Jesus asks us the same question in our prayer, when we are on retreat, in the best and worst times we have, and even when we act wisely or foolishly. I wonder what your answer and my answer will be.
Peter’s response is unambiguous: “You are the Christ,” he tells Jesus. Indeed Jesus is the Christ. He explains to Peter, the disciples and us that He will suffer grievously, be rejected by many, be killed on behalf of God’s people. And He will rise to life after three days.
And indeed all this comes to be. This is the Christian truth.
Indeed Jesus is our Christ. We believe His death and resurrection – they have saved us. We follow Him and His ways of loving God and loving others. This is why we dare to call ourselves Christians. Amen, Amen we say.
Because of Jesus, you and I gather this morning for Catholic Education Sunday. We gather as students, teachers, parents and friends of our pre-school kindergartens and schools. In our homes, all across Singapore, we praise and reverence God in this Eucharist, and through Communion we become the Body of Christ who then go forth to serve everyone.
The Gospel reading reminds us that Jesus calls everyone to follow Him and to know life to the full. Jesus also calls all of us to take up the Cross and know our salvation.
We hear the same Good News in our Catholic schools too. In all that we learn and teach, in everything we experience, in every moment of growing up, we do so on holy ground where we are reminded daily of God’s presence, of how Jesus is with us, and how He teaches us to know God and live in God’s ways.
This reality of being in Catholic schools helps us to answer Jesus’s question, “Who do you say I am?” Jesus is God-with-us.
This article is the first part of the homily preached by Fr Adrian Danker SJ at the Mass commemorating Catholic Education Sunday, held on 11 September 2021.
