Homily, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, 08/23/2026

Father Randy Koenigsknecht

Let’s pause for a moment with the start of that gospel. Who do the people say that I am? What do the people say? People are those on the outside, those kind of looking and the ones who, you know, maybe follow Jesus around sometimes, but not that really committed. They hear his teachings, they see the miracles, but they’re not disciples, they’re not really followers of him.

Who do they say that he is? John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. These are all prophets who called people to repentance, who pointed out to them, you’re going this way, you’re doing these things, and this will lead you to destruction. Turn away, turn back to the Lord.

These are men who worked mighty signs, mighty deeds. Elijah raised people from the dead. He multiplied food.

Great signs were done through him. These things are all true of Jesus. He does all the things that these prophets have done, does all the same ones.

People today, you ask them about Jesus. People who may have maybe know a lot about Jesus, but don’t actually know him, what will they say? Well, he’s a great teacher, a moral revolutionary, teaching us to love and know that all people are equal, all brothers and sisters, you know, great social worker, serving the poor, you know, giving away things generously, teaching us to love them. All true things, all very good things, but shallow.

Because if that is all that Jesus is, he is not very great. Because there have been teachers who have taught more people than him. He’s very limited, just this one region of the world.

There are people who have given away far more things than he has, who have given so much to serve the poor. You know, Jesus’ sacrifice are ultimately himself, of course, skipping ahead. But there are others, if just objectively speaking, I mean, he only helped a few people within his own worldview.

There’s people who have helped internationally even. Jesus would not be that great by comparison. So we’re missing the point if that’s what we limit him to, a model, an example, a teacher.

No, he’s something far greater. And so he asked Simon Peter, you who have been with me for all these years, you who have been following me, you who truly know me, who do you say that I am? And then he says it, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. You are God.

You are the Lord, the eternal one, the one who is holy, the almighty. Come down to us, God with us, the one of whom St. Paul says, for from him and through him and for him, all things are. You are the one who spoke and the world came into being.

You are the one who knows every hair on our heads, knows every atom in the universe by name, the one to whom belongs glory forever. You are the Lord. When we recognize Jesus, when we recognize who he is, what is the response that is due to him? It’s precisely that, to him be glory forever.

Look back at the Psalm, Psalm 138. What do we hear? I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart. I will give thanks to your name.

In the presence of the angels, I will sing your praise. I will worship at your holy temple. That is what is due to the Lord.

That is what is due to Jesus, because he is God. Praise, worship, adoration, to fall down before him, to adore him, because he is God. He is the mighty one.

And when we praise him, when we do that, we declare with Peter who we know God to be, who we know Jesus to be. Who do you say that I am? You are my God, my Father. You are the one who loves me, the one with all power, the one who shows mercy, the one who hears the prayers of the lowly, you’re the one who sees, who answers when I call.

That is who you are, God. And to praise him is to unlock his power in our lives, because we declare who we know him to be and thus what he can do for us. You are the merciful one.

You show mercy to me. You are the one who transforms. You can transform my life.

You are the one who hears and answers our prayers. You will answer me. I can trust you.

You’re the one who loves me. To praise him, it’s to hand over what’s going on in our lives. It’s easy in life, in our prayer, to just get caught up in what’s happening to us.

Lord, I’ve got X, Y, and Z problem. This situation just came up. Lord, I’ve got these sins I’m really struggling with, they’re driving me crazy.

Lord, I’m experiencing despair. Whatever it is, I feel hopeless. I don’t know what I’m going to do in this situation.

And it’s easy for that to just dominate our prayer time. Lord, I need you to fix this problem. And that’s good prayer.

Don’t get me wrong. That’s good. We need to do that.

We need to bring our problems to the Lord. But then the focus can easily just be, it’s always on me. What do I have to do? What are you calling me to do, Lord? Good things, but it’s always on us.

But when we instead hand those things over in praise, our focus is now on him. We declare what God can do for us, what will be with him. That, Lord, you are the one with all the power.

Lord, I trust these situations to your hands. Lord, I know I am a sinner, but I know that you are merciful. You are the merciful, mighty Lord.

Lord, I am weak, but you are strong, and you come close. I see how gentle you are, Lord. I praise you for that.

I thank you, Lord, for how you love us, for your great faithfulness to us in the midst of our weakness, in the midst of our sins. We invite him in concretely. It’s a prayer of surrender.

All of us want to trust the Lord more. We want to always be surrendered to him. But in the practical steps of what does that look like? It looks like praise.

Lord, in the midst of all of this, I will praise you. I will be devoted to you. I will adore you.

It’s a concrete choice. These past two weeks in my life, I’ve been experiencing a lot of that power. I am currently working on transitioning over to Lumen Christi to be the high school chaplain.

So right now, I’m full-time at the parish and full-time at the high school. Believe it or not, high school is a lot of work. There’s a lot of things to do.

School starts this week. And as the new guy starting over there, there’s a lot of things that they ask of me. And the real problem is, I know there’s a lot of things I’m supposed to be doing, but I have no idea what I’m actually supposed to be doing until you figure out your responsibilities.

And so it’s easy to just be overwhelmed by that, to live in almost a low-grade anxiety of like, I’ve got so much stuff to do. But the breakthrough has come when I asked the Lord, what are you doing here? What do you want me to see? It was praise. Lord, just for the next five minutes, I’m just going to praise you because you are God, because I know that you have placed me here.

I know that you love these kids. I know that you love this school. I know that you love this parish, that you’re going to work.

So I’m going to praise you for that. I’m going to praise you for your goodness. And in doing so, I will give it all to you.

It’s a different kind of prayer than we’re used to. And sometimes it can be uncomfortable because it’s like, what am I doing? I’m not figuring out how I’m going to handle the situation. I’m not like planning with the Lord and asking for his will.

No, you’re praising him. You’re letting him work. You’re inviting him to work in your life.

It’s this beautiful surrender. Lord, I worship you. Lord, I praise you in the midst of the storm because you will calm it, because you will take care of me.

You see me and you are worthy of praise because you are the Lord. You are my God. Make the choice to lean into that.

I encourage you, especially in song, it’s one of the most powerful ways when we actually sing our praises to the Lord. Be that in chant, be that in praise and worship music. I’ve been listening to both in my car and singing along as I’ve been driving back and forth from school.

Whatever it is, sing at mass, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. You Lord are holy. You are the holy one.

We join the prayers of the angels, praising him, leaning into who he is. In your own prayer time, just repeat simple prayers. Jesus, I worship you.

You are good. Lord, you hold all things. I trust you.

I give all things to you because you are God. You are my beloved. The one who loves me, the one who sees me.

Lord, I praise you. I thank you for your goodness. Simple prayer.

And of course, receive the Eucharist with great devotion. When you go back to your seat, when you have that time just you and him together, thank him. Lord, I thank you that you are with me.

I thank you that you see me, that you dwell within me. I thank you that you are God. You are the mighty one.

Add it into your prayer. Let that enhance it, a spirit of praise, where we can just lean into who he is. We can remember that’s not all on me, and I can just trust him with that.

I can leave all things in his care, in his hands.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)