How Camaraderie Influences Commitment. 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time (24.08.14)

How Camaraderie Influences Commitment2014 has seen significant commemorations at home and abroad of the World Wars. The media highlights individual heroes or heroines because the public prefers personal stories. This inevitably means less coverage of the rank and file camaraderie-inspired commitment among Armed Service personnel. Individual survivors, in their interviews, frequently referred to how their departed comrades influenced their own sense of commitment in battle.Camaraderie-inspired commitment happens in various circumstances. There’s the ephemeral, quickly dissipated ‘commitment’ of thousands at a sports event instantaneously vocalizing encouragement or condemnation of the action or word of a player or contestant. By contrast, the camaraderie-built commitment of World War 2 troops deepened over time in their preparations for the ‘D Day’ landings. Those military types knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses having honed their mutual respect in the tough school of the military. Their camaraderie-built commitment had depth, endurance and dependability. The 2010 TV series ‘A Band of Brothers’, as well as more recent productions, have portrayed admirable camaraderie-inspired commitment among those under fire.Jesus, as depicted in this Sunday’s Gospel extract (Matt 16: 13-20) had travelled with his ‘novice’ disciples to the region of Caesarea Philippi with its impressive rock formations. This inland region was bordered by what we, today, know as ‘The Golan Heights’, a UN patrolled buffer zone between Syria and Israel.In this geographically uncompromising region Jesus chose to probe the commitment levels of his still-in-formation disciples. He asked: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The disciples passed on what they had heard from people in the villages and settlements through which they had passed. Then, Jesus asked them directly:“But you, who do you say that I am?”Hearing this Gospel extract, you can almost sense how a chatty group suddenly fell silent. Vocalising the opinions of others is very different from nailing your own colours to the mast, as the saying goes. You can almost visualise the uncomfortable shuffling of feet by the disciples and observe their avoidance of eye contact not only with Jesus but also with one another. Matthew’s Gospel gives no indication of how long the embarrassed silence lasted.

It was Peter who broke the silence. He spoke clearly and precisely: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” As a declaration of both faith and of theological truth for all time, it was more profound and penetrating than Peter or his companions were capable of uttering without Divine assistance. The in-depth implications of Peter’s declaration would not have been clear, at that time, to either Peter or his companion disciples. Only later, with the gift of the fullness of the Holy Spirit, would these novices have entered the process of appreciating Jesus’ teaching.

Scripture commentators say that the Holy Spirit inspired Peter’s declaration for the good of Peter and his community. For this to be, Peter must have been open to God’s will being effective in his life. Without Peter’s acquiescence, no inspired statement could have been made. Theologians have never been, nor will they ever be, able to improve on the completeness of Peter’s theological definition of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth.

There is such a thing as innate human awareness that allows us to believe in a truth while still not fully comprehending it. Is this what happened to Peter? Clearly, Peter believed not only that he was compelled to speak out but also in what he said. Did Peter’s proclamation enable his companions to experience their own innate awareness of this truth that was still beyond their full comprehension? Was this an instance of camaraderie-inspired commitment?

You may have been present when a young child, with an age related level of intelligence, has declaimed with conviction a truth that has silenced adults? More to the point, are we open to offering ourselves, daily, to God as people willing to speak his truth whenever and wherever his Spirit prompts us?

The point in our proclaiming the Creed together at Mass each Sunday is surely to help us refocus, after a week of distracting temptations, on who we are and why we are. Do we appreciate the shared prayer of the Creed as an intended refreshment of our communal commitment, our Baptismal camaraderie, before we separate again to our individual and family weekday lives? Through the Mass we are recommitting ourselves to remaining alert to God’s Holy Spirit when his truth needs to be vocalised or exemplified, through us, for the benefit of another or others.

For his part, Jesus recognised, in Peter’s declaration, a sign of his heavenly Father’s will for Peter. This led Jesus to say:

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
 For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Our moments of significant experience do not happen in a void. Many married people, for example, remember in some detail the location where they first declared their mutual love. So physical settings have their part to play in reinforcing our memories of some events.

Jesus had chosen Caesarea Philippi with its impressive rock formations. The setting was a perfect backdrop for Jesus’ confirmation of Peter role in the Church – “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it”. Peter and his companions would have reason to recall their physical surroundings that day.

Might this Gospel extract provide us with an opportunity to reflect how an individual or a congregation, along with the location, helped underpin our crucial memories of moments when we either received or began to appreciate God’s truth? Such a reflection could lead us to a deeper appreciation of God’s gifts.

Pope Francis said recently that never before has there been such intensive persecution of Christians or so many instances of martyrdom as now. The Pope’s claim may have shocked people who, previously, associated the persecution to death of Christians as something more associated with the early Church.

If, for you, the Pope’s claim is a wake-up call, then please do be woken up! We all need to upgrade our awareness of what is a daily reality for many of our Christian sisters and brothers.

Jesus’ declaration – “and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it (the Church)” implies not that we live safely behind high walls, like the residents of some modern gated-community, but that the forces of Satan will be continually testing the Sacrament-nourished, camaraderie-inspired commitment of God’s Baptised. Terrifyingly, an untold number of our Baptised sisters and brothers have been duped into unconcerned ignorance of the battle for their souls being conducted with devilish cleverness by Satan.

Though it doesn’t form part of this Sunday’s Gospel extract, what Jesus had to say to Peter in Luke 22:31ff. Is apt for inclusion here:

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.
But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. 
And when you have turned back, strengthen your brethren.”

Someone once said: ‘Without commitment there is no depth in a relationship. ’The strengthening of our worldwide family is the daily vocation of Pope Francis with each of us in a camaraderie-inspired supporting commitment of prayer and fasting.