Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jun 18th, 2013 | By admin | Category: Gospel ReflectionIn this gospel passage, Jesus defines what the mission of the Christ (Messiah) and subsequently of Christian disciples will be. Contrary to popular expectations, Jesus the Messiah will not be the conquering hero who will fix everything that has gone wrong in the world because of human deceit and violence. Certainly Jesus recognizes human suffering, and responds to it with compassion. He provides food for the hungry, he cures the sick, he drives out demons. However, his mission as Messiah is to address the human dilemma on a deeper level. He will address the inauthentic human condition that is the source of the world’s injustice and suffering. Jesus will do so as the Son of Man.
To understand what Jesus means by identifying himself as the Son of Man (the Son of Adam or the Human) we have to see it in the context of the entire biblical narrative about the reality of the human condition. In the beginning God creates humans in his image: children of God, not part of God, but like God. Sadly, we do not get a chance to see what authentic human existence looks like. What we do see is inauthentic human existence soon after the beginning. The first humans reject their truth as creatures. Their children continue to kill and to deceive each other until the human is barely recognizable as being and acting like God. “In the eyes of God the earth was corrupt and full of lawlessness” (Gn 6:11).


