Jesus’ Mid-term
Examination
Introduction
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Exams are common to a student life. In UP the
student life usually starts with UPCAT exam and ends with comprehensive exam
and the thesis.
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Mid term exams are meant for knowing the
progress of the student in the middle of their studies. If the student fails
the kind professors give them a second chance.
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Today’s gospel is the midterm exam of Jesus. The
students were his disciples. There were two parts for the exam – theoretical
and practical.
o
Theoretical part had two questions – “who do
people say that I am” and “who do you say that I am”
§
The answers were perfect and peter got 100%
score.
o
Practical question was – their response to the
passion narrative of Jesus.
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The answer was wrong and peter got 0% in that
with scolding of Jesus as ‘satan’
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Jesus was kind enough to give another chance to
peter.
o
In John 21, Jesus asked peter ‘do you love me
more than these’ (Jn 21:15). But he failed by rejecting Jesus three times
before the down.
o
Jesus gave the chances again and Peter used the
chance and scored 100%. “He wept bitterly” (Mt 26: 75). He never failed in any
further exams of Jesus. He even gave his life for Jesus.
Content
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We all score 100% for the theoretical exams, but
for practical we often fail.
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Jesus gives us a clue for our practical exams,
which is to live Jesus in our lives, that is “deny yourself, take up your cross
and follow me” (Mk 8: 34).
o
Deny yourself
§
It is dying to the SELF – everything in our life
is the blessings of God. It is showered upon us not on our merits but because
of the mercy of God.
§
We are the stewards of the blessings and
therefore have an obligation to share it with our brethren.
o
Take up your cross
§
We live in a world where people try to run away
or avoid crosses. The increased number of divorces, abandoned elders etc.
points to that reality of ‘avoiding the crosses’.
§
We live in a culture of ‘sun shades and ear
phones’ in order to avoid the situation and others.
§
Our crosses can be our family members, partners,
children, co-worker or any essential situations of life. (story of a lady who
considered her husband as her cross. When the retreat preacher said to lift a
cross for blessing - she failed to do so because ‘he is so heavy’)
o
Follow me
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It is a call to obey the teachings and examples
of Jesus.
§
It is an invitation to be another Christ in our
life.
Conclusion
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We all are good in our theoretical exam results.
We profess by word our faith in Jesus especially on Sunday liturgy.
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God asks us to score 100% in our practical exams
by ‘denying oneself, taking up the cross of everyday life, and following Jesus.
Additional story
The story is told of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson on a
camping trip. As they lay sleeping one night, Holmes woke Watson and said,
"Watson, look up into the sky and tell me what you see." Watson said,
"I see millions of stars." Holmes asked, "And what does that
tell you?" Watson replied, "Astronomically, it tells me that there
are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Theologically, it
tells me that God is great and that we are small and insignificant.
Meteorologically, it tells me that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. And
what does it tell you?" Holmes answered, "Someone stole our
tent." Some people are great at speculative knowledge but when it comes to
its implication for practical living they score zero. Such is Peter in today's
gospel.
