💖 HOMILY - SEPTEMBER 25 💖

First Reading - Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 

Gospel - Luke 9:18-22

Life is made up of different seasons. There are moments of joy and moments of sorrow, times of beginning and times of ending, moments when things seem clear and moments when we have to wait. The first reading reminds us that “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”

We often want everything to happen according to our own timetable. We want answers immediately, success without waiting, and solutions without difficulty. But Ecclesiastes reminds us that life has its own rhythm. We may not always understand why certain things happen at a particular moment, but God can work even through those seasons we do not understand.

This becomes clearer in today's Gospel. Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They give different answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the ancient prophets. Then Jesus asks them a more personal question: “But who do you say that I am?”

Peter answers, “The Christ of God.”

Peter recognizes Jesus as the Messiah, but immediately afterwards Jesus begins to explain what being the Messiah truly means. He says that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, be killed and on the third day be raised.

Peter may have expected a Messiah of power and victory. Jesus reveals a different path: the path of suffering, rejection, death and resurrection.

Here we see an important connection with Ecclesiastes. There is a time for everything, and God's plan does not always follow our expectations. The disciples had to learn that God's way of bringing salvation would pass through the cross before the resurrection.

We too can struggle when God allows us to enter a difficult season of life. We may ask, “Why now? Why me? When will this situation change?” But today's readings remind us that a difficult season is not necessarily a meaningless season. God can be working in us even when we cannot yet see the result.

At the same time, the Gospel asks each of us the same question Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”

It is easy to know what others say about Jesus. We hear about him in the Gospel, in sermons and in the teaching of the Church. But faith becomes personal when we can answer: Who is Jesus for me?

Is he simply someone I know about, or is he the Christ whom I trust even when life does not make sense?

The cross teaches us that God's presence does not disappear in difficult times. Jesus himself passed through suffering before entering into the glory of the resurrection.

Therefore, whatever season we may be experiencing today—joy or sorrow, success or failure, beginning or ending—we can place it in God's hands.

We may not understand God's timing, but we can trust God's presence.

Let us ask for the grace to recognize Christ not only in the good moments of life but also in the difficult ones. And when we cannot understand the season we are going through, may we continue to trust that God is at work.

There is a time for everything under heaven. And in every season, Christ walks with us.