HOMILY OF FRIDAY OF THE TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY
TIME YEAR C. 26TH SEPTEMBER 2025.
BY REV FR. ADOLE ACHILLEUS ILE LAMPEZ CSSp
1st reading : Haggai 1:15-2:9
Psalm 42:1-4
Gospel : Luke 9:18-22
The gospel text of today presents us with an indispensable question in our journey of faith. Thus, Jesus asked his disciples, “… Who do the crowds say I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist; others Elijah; and others say one of the ancient prophets come back to life….” (Luke 9:18-22)
The answer above shows that crowds had an erroneous idea of the identity of Jesus. They saw Jesus as John the Baptist because He preached repentance and the coming of God’s kingdom just like John the Baptist did, and always faced opposition from religious leaders just like John the Baptist.
Jesus was also regarded by others as Elijah because of the peculiar attribute of performing so many miracles just like Elijah did in his days.
More so, Jesus was regarded as Jeremiah, the prophet who is famously known as the prophet of doom because he preached about Israel going into exile and the leading people in the society never liked him. Jesus equally said so many things in the course of his teaching that were not acceptable by the Jews.
It is now understandable why the people picked John the baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah out of so many others that emerged as prophets before Jesus.
Then, the other part of the question comes in, thus, “…But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ It was Peter who spoke up. ‘The Christ of God’ he said….” (Luke 9:18-22)
It is important to note that when the first question was asked, the disciples answered unanimously, “… they say he is John the Baptist and so on …” but when the question was directed to the disciples, it was only Peter who spoke up, which implies that others either kept quiet or were mumbling things because of their uncertainty of the real identity of Jesus. This also means that some of the disciples were following Jesus based on the account of the crowds regarding the identity of Jesus since they have no personal knowledge of him.
Like the other disciples who do not have any personal knowledge of Christ, there are many in our world in the same shoes who are moving from one prayer house to another, from one man of God to another simply based on the advice they got from a friend or a family member that such men of God are powerful and works miracles. Consequently, our society is full of gullible Christians who have been used and abused in the hands of “men of God” because of the lack of the true knowledge of Christ and the testimonies of such abuses are everywhere especially on the social space.
As we continue on our journey of faith, this question of the identity of Christ must continue to resound in our minds and hearts.
We need to have an encounter and must realize with certainty the identity of Jesus Christ in our lives and why we follow him. If we follow because we see him as merely a magician or a miracle worker and not for the sake of true worship and propagation of the message of love he handed over to us, then we need to reconsider our disposition towards Christianity.
May the Lord inspire us in our journey of faith and help us to have an encounter with the Lord to enable us to realize his true identity for positive transformation. Amen!
Peace be with you.
