[media presentation below] GospelThink Sunday, August 27, Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time MATTHEW 16:13-20 I should be the pattern of your life, as Peter confessed. Prayerthoughts a. The phrase “Son of Man” may simply be a way of Jesus speaking of himself as a human person. I too am a human person. If I want to compare myself to Jesus, what must I change? b. Whom do I consider to be prophets in my world? c. I obviously agree with Peter that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. In what ways have my belief made my life different? (This is the task of the meditation.) d. Have I made someone or something other than the Lord more important in my life? e. Peter and the community are the solid rock foundation of the Kingdom of God. As a member of my Church, do I show to others how important the Kingdom of God is? f. Even though Jesus gave Peter the keys and the power to bind, he still had very much to learn to be a true follower of Jesus. What are the most important characteristics of a follower of Jesus?   g. My prayerthoughts….   Today, I will write out the answers to letter c. Some Thoughts on the Liturgy LIVING THE TRUTH           There are many people who have strong opinions about things and often they have no problem expressing that opinion and letting it be known. For example, I see it in the way people react to things that happen in a parish. When I was pastor at one time, one of the Masses was always led by a choir with music that is a little more upbeat.            One particular Sunday, the choir had led the congregation in a couple of songs that called for some reaction which we often do with our young people—clapping of hands, some body movement, very peppy songs. After Mass as I greeted the people, one woman was absolutely furious, really could not contain her anger, and said: “That was absolutely the worst Mass I have ever been to in my entire life; that is not the way to celebrate Mass, and I will never come here again.” About a minute later, a man likewise quite excited, came up to me and said: “That was a wonderful experience, I really appreciate what the Church is doing—that is the way Mass should be.” Strong personalities, and neither of them had the truth—they were acting on what they thought the truth was. Neither of them understood what the Mass was all about.            According to most Scripture scholars, Peter was a strong personality. In today’s Gospel, he is the one who directly answers Jesus after the other Apostles had spoken with general answers. And he speaks the truth—he does not hide it, he does not give his opinion of the truth, he knows that this is a fact, and he lets it guide his thought:           You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.           I believe that the question of the Gospel is among the five or so most important questions that we must ask ourselves as we develop our own spirituality:           Who do you say that I am?  that is,           Who do we say Jesus Christ is? It is among the most important spiritual questions because depending on our answer, we develop our approach to Jesus, and we direct our spiritual lives—rightly or wrongly. The truth of faith, as Peter says in the Gospel, is that Jesus is the Lord of our lives, the living and true God, the person that we must pattern ourselves after, the way, the truth and the life.            There are many Christians who believe that they know what they think the truth is or better put, what they want it to be. The people who came up to see me after Mass that Sunday thought that they had the truth of the Mass. They did not understand that the music is only there to help them understand the Lord’s presence in the Mass and Eucharist better. They did not understand that the Lord had given us the Eucharist as a way of remembering him and his truth. They formed their opinion on what they thought about the situation.            One of the common criticisms of people who will not change their thinking when they should is the exasperation expressed by the phrase: “You just don’t get it, do you?” In the field of religion, I believe that there are a number of people who just do not get it. For some reason, Jesus’ basic truths about love of others and concern for people, and the real reasons why we are here—namely to make the Lord’s presence in our lives something that is real—does not sink in. They just do not “get it” and probably never have, maybe never will.           Peter “got it” in the Gospel today. He knew that Jesus was the truth that had to guide him. We are called to “get it” as well, and truly understand what Jesus and this Church is all about. MEDIA PRESENTATION Movie: “The Martian” — final session WHEN THINGS GO “SOUTH” The Gospel LUKE 14:15-24 One of Jesus’ fellow guests … said to him, “Blessed is the one who will dine in the kingdom of God.” He replied to him, “A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready.’ But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, ‘I have purchased a field and must go to examine it; I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen and am on my way to evaluate them; I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have just married a woman, and therefore I cannot come.’ The servant went and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried out and still there is room.’ The master then ordered the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled. For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

Gospelthink:  You must choose to come to my Kingdom. Am I showing my choice daily?

The Media — “The Martian” (final session)The determination of astronaut Mark Watney to stay alive on Mars until help would come was incredible. He determined how to live and how to prepare himself for the next part of his journey. But things did not go the way that he wanted. In fact, everything that he prepared for was taken away from him–everything. He could easily have given up, and lived the final days of his life and died on Mars in despair. But his determination continued. Speaking to a beginning class of astronauts after he survived, he said to them that they had to prepare not only for the solution to the problems, but they had to expect that “at some point, everything is going to go south.” The solution, he told them, had to be to accept what happened, get to work, begin again, and solve the new problems one at a time.

What do you do when you have figured out everything that could possibly happen, prepared for it well, worked it out and were ready for a happy ending–and everything falls apart? Such was the case in Jesus’ story of a banquet for a large number of people. The man had everything prepared, and a happy ending was truly expected, but because people did not care to engage themselves, the banquet was ready and there was no one to enjoy it. In a similar situation in the movie “The Martian,” astronaut Mark Watney, after using the talents that he had, had accomplished the ability to stay alive until an emergency supply ship could come. But as he later told his class: “Everything went south.” Everything was taken away from him. In Jesus’ story told to make the Jewish leaders of his time aware of what they were refusing, the master went into a “rage” and found a solution by filling his banquet with all kinds of people, by even forcing them to come to it. In the movie, Mark Watney went into momentary despair, but then went right back into his determination to stay alive. The important fact is that in both stories, the person in charge had an alternate plan. We all have such moments in life in different circumstances, of course. But there are times when everything is planned, we have a good “handle” on what will happen, and suddenly things fall apart. We experience a sudden illness, a sudden death, an unexpected failed relationship, or a disturbance that destroys the normal process of living, and we react. Maybe it is a rage, maybe it is despair, but we are quite ready to give up. We must learn the lesson of moving on as best we can. Maybe the answer lies in always being ready for the unexpected. As Jesus once said about his unexpected coming: “You must be prepared” (Luke 12:40). That is, we must always be prepared for things not to go the way they should. It might mean to have a plan A and a plan B, or some acquired secret source of action, or a simple reliance on God to help us through the situation. Ultimately, we must learn not to give up, and learn to see the Lord’s activity in everything that happens, doing our best in the situation, but allowing the Lord to be in charge.

PRAYER Good and gracious God, even though we feel prepared for some things in our lives, sometimes they do not work out. Give us the grace to never give up, and to continually trust in You to help us with the solution. Be with us, we pray.

+++++ GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT Theme: Even though we think that everything will be okay, we must be ready in some way for the unexpected.   DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: (session: approximately 62 minutes) 1. What scene during this session was most striking and why? 2. In the Gospel, Jesus tells the story in illustration of the fact that many would not want the Kingdom that he was presenting. Why would people refuse to be part of Jesus’ Kingdom? 3. Jesus invited the poor and infirm to his Kingdom. Why do you think Jesus paid particular interest to the poor? 4. What can a person do to help another person who is suffering despair? 5. What “major change of plans” has happened in your life so far? 6. Why is it so difficult to allow the Lord to be in charge of our lives? 7. Analysis: How would such a long time alone affect human beings? 8. Scene analysis: The Hermes crew disobey NASA to rescue Watney. Most of them seem to have lost their jobs. Should NASA have let them go? Yes or no and why? 9. Dialogue analysis: Watney–“Yes, I thought I was going to die.” If you thought you were going to die, given Watney’s situation,  what would you do? 10. What does the movie “The Martian” teach young people?