12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Scripture Readings
First Zec. 12:10-11; 13:1
Second Gal 3:26-29
Gospel Lk 9:18-24

Prepared by: Fr. Lawrence J. Donohoo, O.P

1. Subject Matter
First Reading: Zechariahs prophecy, so naturally applied to Christ, oscillates between grief and
consolation.
Second Reading: Faith, which makes us doubly children of God in Christ (the New Covenant) and
children of Abraham (the Old Covenant), is not qualified by any other human distinction no matter its
origin.
Gospel: Once Peter correctly states Jesus identity, Jesus begins the far more difficult task of educating
them in his sacrificial mission and how this will affect them.

2. Exegetical Notes
[I]f him is taken as God, to whom they shall look, then the vb. daqar has to be taken in a
metaphorical sense, to offend, as in Prov 12:18, but to take the text that way entails taking the
following mourning as a mourning for Yahweh, which seems improbable, but not impossible, given
the allusion to a rite of mourning associated with a pagan god in v 11. . . .Similarities to the Suffering
Servant of Isa 53 have been pointed out. (NJBC)
Baptism is the sacramental complement of faith, the rite whereby a person achieves union with Christ
and publicly manifests his commitment. (NJBC)
Lukes reference to Jesus at prayer indicates that something very important theologically is about to
occur. (NJBC)
Son of Man: The title, which Luke had employed to depict Jesus authority to forgive sins (5:24) and
to change Sabbath regulations (6:5), is now used to describe his humiliation. (NJBC)
cross: Not the headaches and other vicissitudes of life, but Jesus commitment to and his disciples
participation in Gods kingdom in word and deed. (NJBC)
3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1432 It is in discovering the greatness of Gods love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight
of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is
converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced.
791 The bodys unity does not do away with the diversity of its members: In the building up of
Christs Body there is engaged a diversity of members and functions. There is only one Spirit who,
according to his own richness and the needs of the ministries, gives his different gifts for the welfare
of the Church. . . .[T]he unity of the Mystical Body triumphs over all human divisions: For as many
of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
1227 According to the Apostle Paul, the believer enters through Baptism into communion with
Christs death, is buried with him, and rises with him. . . .The baptized have put on Christ. Through
the Holy Spirit, Baptism is a bath that purifies, justifies, and sanctifies.
1243 The white garment symbolizes that the person baptized has put on Christ, has risen with
Christ. . . .The newly baptized is now, in the only Son, a child of God entitled to say the prayer of the
children of God: Our Father.
1425 You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and in the Spirit of our God. One must appreciate the magnitude of the gift God has given us in the
sacraments of Christian initiation in order to grasp the degree to which sin is excluded for him who has
put on Christ.
2600 The Gospel according to St. Luke emphasizes the action of the Holy Spirit and the meaning of
prayer in Christs ministry. Jesus prays before the decisive moments of his mission: before his Fathers
witness to him during his baptism and Transfiguration, and before his own fulfillment of the Fathers
plan of love by his Passion. He also prays before the decisive moments involving the mission of his
apostles: at his election and call of the Twelve, before Peters confession of him as the Christ of
God, and again that the faith of the chief of the Apostles may not fail when tempted. Jesus prayer
before the events of salvation that the Father has asked him to fulfill is a humble and trusting
commitment of his human will to the loving will of the Father.
1435 Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the
exercise and defense of justice and right, by the admission of faults to ones brethren, fraternal
correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering,
endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up ones cross each day and following
Jesus is the surest way of penance.

4. Patristic Commentary
Now Jesus engaging in prayer might perplex his disciples. For they saw him praying like a man,
whom before they had seen performing miracles with divine power. In order then to banish all
perplexity of this kind, he asks them this question, not because he did not know the reports which they
had gathered from without, but that he might rid them of the opinion of the many and instill into them
the true faith. Hence it follows, And he asked them, saying, who do the people say that I am? (St.
Cyril of Alexandria)
But mark the subtle skill of the question. For Christ directs them first to the praises of strangers, that
having overthrown these, he might beget in them the right opinion. So when the disciples had given
 the opinion of the people, he asks them their own opinion, as it is added, And he said to them, Who
do you say that I am? How set apart you are! He excludes them from the others in order that they
may avoid their opinions. (St. Cyril of Alexandria)
Great and noble leaders provoke the mighty in arms to deeds of valor, not only by promising them
the honors of victory, but by declaring that suffering is in itself glorious. Such we see is the teaching of
the Lord Jesus Christ. For he had foretold to his disciples that he must suffer the accusations of the
Jews, be slain, and rise again on the third day. Lest then they should think that Christ indeed was to
suffer persecution for the life of the world, but that they might lead a soft life, he shows them that they
must necessarily pass through similar struggles if they desired to obtain His glory. (St. Cyril of
Alexandria)
The good Master then, lest any man should be broken down by despair or weariness, straightway
promises that he will be seen by the faithful, in these words, But I say to you, There are some
standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God. (St. Ambrose)

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars

Like other mystics, St. Bridget of Sweden experienced the cross of Jesus in her mystical revelations,
and relived that experience in a life of personal asceticism.

6. Quotations of Benedict XVI

We are not spared dark nights. They are clearly necessary, so that we can learn through suffering, so
that we can acquire freedom and maturity and above all else a capacity for sympathy with others.
Remarkably enough, the claim that there can no longer be any God, the claim, that is, that God has
completely disappeared, is the urgent conclusion drawn by onlookers at the terror, the people who
view the horrors from the cushioned comfort of their own prosperity. . .But among those who are
themselves immersed in the fearful reality, the effect is not infrequently just the opposite: it is
precisely then that they discover God.
[I]t is no accident that the human being who has been the most afflicted and has suffered mostJesus
of Nazarethwas and is revelation itself. It is no accident that faith in God flows from a head sore-
wounded, from a crucified man, and that atheism has Epicurus for father and originates in the world
of the satisfied onlooker.
There used to be a form of devotion. . . that included the idea of offering up the minor daily
hardships that continually strike at us like irritating jabs, thereby giving them a meaning. Of course,
there were some exaggerations and perhaps unhealthy applications of this devotion, but we need to ask
ourselves whether there may not after all have been something essential and helpful contained within
it.
What does it mean to offer something up? Those who did so were convinced that they could insert
these little annoyances into Christs great com-passion so that they somehow became part of the
treasury of compassion so greatly needed by the human race. In this way, even the small
inconveniences of daily life could acquire meaning and contribute to the economy of good and of
human love.
God is visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted by the Bible, he comes towards us,
he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the Cross, to
his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of the
 Apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its path. Nor has the Lord been absent from subsequent
Church history: he encounters us ever anew, in the men and women who reflect his presence, in his
word, in the sacraments, and especially in the Eucharist. In the Churchs Liturgy, in her prayer, in the
living community of believers, we experience the love of God, we perceive his presence and we thus
learn to recognize that presence in our daily lives.

7. Other Considerations

Pauls three distinctions, which are unable to compromise the unity of all those who are children of
God in Christ through faith, are taken respectively from the domains of religion (Jew and Greek),
human convention (slave and free person), and nature (male and female).
Paul is not denying the validity of these distinctions in their respective domains, as is clear from other
passages. See, respectively, Rm. 9-11, Philemon, and Eph. 5:22-33. Rather, he is denying that these
trump or qualify in way whatsoever the unity in faith of the baptized.
[B]efore Jesus can reveal the truth of himself, he must correct his disciples mistaken preconceptions.
For the Lord knows that any time human beings experience something outside of themselves, it is
always associated with the experience of themselvesevery experience of something external is at the
same time an experience of self. Thus, to know who Jesus is means to know more truthfully who we
are. (Cameron) And so a passage that begins with Christs identity and continues with his mission
concludes with our participation in both.
By introducing the cross, Jesus is building on Peters answer: the Son of God is the Suffering Servant.
Barely out of the Easter Season, we already are returning to the mystery of the cross. The first reading
reminds us of the posture of Holy Week, particularly Good Friday. This is a passive stance: mourning
him whom we have thrust through, that is, the death of Christ as his saving work; what he has done for
us. And this theme is repeated in the first part of todays Gospel, where we have one of the three
predictions of the Passion. But the conclusion of this passage introduces a new posture: not what
Christ has done for us, but what we are asked to contribute.
We might distinguish the cross that we daily take upthe crosses that we can name and to some
degree manage, from the cross that will one day take us upthe cross that brings us to the edge of our
strength and that completely engulfs us.
The cross is not simply what Jesus carries, as Simon of Cyrene soon learned and as many of us learn
too late. It is something that we are to carry as well, and as Jesus points out, daily. This clearly
introduces a new sense of cross since no one can carry the cross of Good Friday daily, not even Christ
himself. His entire passion lasted less than eighteen hours, but he carried the cross daily as well. This
we know since he would never ask us to do what he has not already done.
One sense of our daily cross is facing down the disorder in our soul through strategies of discipline
and correction, that is, the development of personal virtue in our life. Here we need to distinguish
discipline that comes to us from the Lord and discipline that we undertake ourselves. This cross
work, at cross-purposes with our will, forges us into worthy ministers of the Kingdom.
Another sense of daily cross emerges from the fact that we are not only agents, but patients in life: not
only do we act, but we are acted upon. The same is true of our daily cross: not only can I jump forward
and grab this cross waiting for an owner, I can allow the cross to be placed on my shoulders. This has
to do with the daily difficulties of life that come our waynothing that we choose, but is simply given
 to us: the daily grind, the irritations that come from daily work, shattered hopes, frustrating people,
injustice. Nothing is too small or insignificant to escape usefulness for the kingdom of God.

Recommended Resources
Benedict XVI. Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI. Edited by Peter John Cameron. Yonkers:
Magnificat, 2006.
____________. Deus caritas est.
____________. Spe Salvi.
Brown, Raymond A., Joseph A. Fitzmyer and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical
Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1990.
Cameron, Peter John. To Praise, To Bless, To Preach - Cycle C. Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 2000.
Thomas Aquinas, St. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels. Works of the Fathers. Vol. 3.
London, 1843. Reprinted by The St. Austin Press, 1997.