The love of Christ urges us on – Mark 8:27-35

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B; Holy Infant parish.

I read a human interest story earlier today about George Ruiz. George had retired after serving twenty years in the Coast Guard. He drove in to the Carolinas this weekend from Alabama, cutting down trees in his way, to come rescue people. Sometimes he can get someone out alone, sometimes he can use his expertise to get more accurate information to the emergency services and help them adjust their triage list so as people who are on the wait list to be rescued and be helped sooner if time is running out quicker than expected for them. Now, I don’t know George. I’ve never met him, probably never will. But, I’m guessing he’s not out there because he loves wind and rain. I’m also guessing he’s smart enough that it’s not that he has no fear of these things. He’s not there, I’m guessing, because he thinks putting himself in danger is fun. I’m guessing he’s there, in harm’s way, because of deep-seated love for humanity that won’t shirk from danger when he has an opportunity to express that love in concrete acts of saving people.

That’s the kind of bravery that Jesus commits to today. And that’s the kind of bravery that Peter isn’t ready for. Peter has a certain kind of bravery; he’s willing to contradict Jesus to his face. So, give him points for that. He also very definitely has a heart full of love. One option for him is to walk away, to give up on all of this, and escape any hint of danger for himself. His love for Jesus makes that not an option. But, there’s a kind of courage he doesn’t have, the courage to let Jesus keep on loving us even in the face of mortal danger. The kind of courage I’m guessing George Ruiz’s loved ones have.

Jesus doesn’t seek out danger for the sake of danger, or pain and suffering because he thinks those things are good. They aren’t. But he refuses to shirk from danger when danger stands in the way of loving humanity and expressing that love in concrete action. On his first day of public ministry, he healed, and he proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom, and despite going to a deserted place, people flocked to him. That makes him a threat to structures of power that oppress and don’t heal, but claim total control. That puts him in mortal danger. He doesn’t need to use any supernatural divine knowledge of the future to know that what he’s doing will probably get him killed. He just needs to look at all the other crucifixions around him. But to claim that he’ll rise again, that his love for us is stronger than even death, death at our hands, that takes special knowledge, knowledge it doesn’t seem Peter is ready for.

But that’s what true bravery, the Christian virtue of courage, really is. It’s not discounting danger, it’s not a lack of fear, it’s certainly not seeking out pain and suffering for their own sake, but it’s refusing to let any of that keep us from loving. And, as James reminds us, love is a concrete set of actions, not a feeling. Bravery also isn’t a refusal to ask for help. There’s a bravery needed to call for rescue. Part of Christ’s bravery is being willing to call on these humans to help him, to stand by him, even though he knows they’ll let him down.

Peter won’t be ready for that when it comes to the crucifixion either. He’ll flee. It’s only after the resurrection that he’ll be emboldened, when he’ll let the love of Christ urge him on to bravely build up the Church, and finally die for it. But Mary’s already ready by the Crucifixion. We’re celebrating the Sunday Vigil Mass tonight, but that doesn’t prevent it from still being September 15^th which is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. My religious family, the Congregation of Holy Cross, was placed by Bl. Basile Moreau, our founder, under the patronage of Mary under that title, Our Lady of Sorrows. Under that title we trust in Mary who was prepared to experience so many sorrows as Mother to our Lord, almost all of which she could have shirked if she just stopped caring, if she ran and gave up on him.

But, she didn’t. She kept on loving, and St. Bernard describes her experience of standing by her Son’s cross as her own martyrdom. She stands by us in our sufferings too, and she urges us to do the same for one another. She urges us to not give up on loving, even when love opens double gates on suffering, as it will.

And it’s by the cross, where Jesus entrusted her and the Beloved Disciple to one another. It’s by the cross where church, where community is formed, where love begets love, when it dares stand next to death, because it trusts that love is stronger.

Let us close with an ancient prayer to Our Lady, which is found in our Holy Cross Directory ofDevotional Prayer: O Mother of God, we take refuge in your loving care. Let not our plea to you pass unheeded in the trials that beset us, but deliver us from danger, for you alone are truly pure, you alone are truly blessed.