HOMILY FOR THE 21ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A (5).

HOMILY FOR THE 21ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A

HOMILY THEME: JESUS THE SON OF GOD

BY: Fr. Benny Tuazon

HOMILY:
(Mt. 16:13-20)
In the day’s Gospel Jesus was recognized and proclaimed by Peter as the Son of the living God. It was a revelation gifted to Peter by the Father. It was through this revelation that Jesus instituted the Church through the leadership of Peter, the rock on which it will be founded. Jesus further proclaimed that even the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus is present in the Church and empowers it. He added that through the Church, God’s grace of forgiveness will flow.

It is a good opportunity at present to understand the Church. It was founded by the Lord and does not refer only to the building but but to the members and leaders. The members are the baptized and the leaders are those who were ordained according to Church traditions dating back to the Lord Jesus. Thus, it will be wrong to just refer to the Church as the hierarchy. The Church is us with our leaders and Jesus. The proclamation of the Good News, according to Jesus, for the salvation of souls is her main purpose. The Church is the Sacrament of Jesus’ presence. She performs Jesus’ threefold function: prophetic, priestly, and kingly.
She is both sinful and holy. Hypocrite and authentic. Sinful and hypocrite because of the presence of people who have limitations and weaknesses. She is holy and authentic because of the presence of the Lord. The Church had existed and served since Peter’s designation as her leader. She had her ups and downs, successes and failures, scandals and glories both due to human weakness. But she persisted and continues to exist because nothing, even the gates of hell, can’t prevail over Jesus, the Son of God.

It is for this reason that we ought to trust the Church, her members and leaders. Her many years of experience and through history should attest for her knowledge of the truth. Couple it with the guidance of the Spirit of Jesus, the Church, through the pope, is infallible. This is what the Church leaders, bishops and priests, try teach. They are not free to teach their own knowledge and understanding of what Jesus taught. The Church’s sacred Scriptures and Tradition combine to provide us with the truth and its context which Jesus taught. Let us love this Church. Jesus gave this to us.

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