In this Sunday's Gospel we hear Jesus
ask his disciples "who do YOU think I am?" St. Peter, who later during
our Lord's suffering denied knowing him three times, said quite clearly
"The Christ of God". Jesus is
said to have rebuked him. It seems that Peter and the disciples did not really
understand what Jesus was asking. Peter thought
he had the right answer. After all he
had been hanging around Jesus for some time, surely he thought he knew him. He
had seen him heal illnesses, feed multitudes, forgive sinners, they prayed
together, ate meals together, traveled together. He thought he knew Jesus.
To know someone means that one
has a relationship with that person. It
seems that this Gospel we are being asked to not be so quick to think we know
who Jesus is.
In our society we see many groups
or individuals who will be very quick to identify with the Democratic Jesus or
the Republican Jesus or the Touchdown Jesus or the Psychologist Jesus or the
Warrior Jesus or the Meek Jesus or the Friend Jesus or the Environmental Jesus.....so
many ways to frame our concept of Jesus upon whom we'll profess our faith upon.
What Jesus teaches us is that he
is always more than what we think he is. He is more loving, more forgiving,
more terrifying, more awesome, more Son of God than we can ever imagine. And what I like best about this Gospel is
that Jesus doesn't define for us in this moment what the "right"
answer should have been, instead he keeps us in a spirit of discernment.
Later, he shows us who he really
is with the greatest miracle ever....a moment when eternity breaks into our
sphere. Through his death and
resurrection Jesus leaves those who truly want to know him the answer to this
question: he is the Son of a Living God.
He shows us that he takes upon himself the sins of the entire world, so
that all of us may be assured of eternity with our Father. This Jesus is Love
in the truest sense of the word. Love that wants a relationship with us. Love that is a person. Love that wants us to be like Love too.
When we come to know Jesus we
must choose to love him or not. There really is no in between. This is why at Mass, each Sunday we approach
the altar and say "yes" to Jesus by participating in his miracle of
death and resurrection. This event happened once in history however it is an
eternal sacrifice. (Hebrews 7:26-27 and Heb
9:11 among others).We become active with God in
the greatest miracle of all. (Lk 22:19) When we celebrate and "remember"
this miracle we are saying 'yes' to becoming a part of our miracle
story. We are saying 'I want to know you more'. We eat his body and drink his blood in remembrance of this truth, of this promise.
(1 Corin. 11:24) It becomes our mystical encounter with the person; the Living Son of
God who challenges us by asking us each time: "who do you say I am?"
If we believe this to be true
when we approach the altar we don't see just an ordinary table anymore. This
table where our community gathers has transformed into a sacred place where
Jesus becomes real in our presence.
Knowing Jesus makes me humble, makes me hopeful, makes me remorseful, makes me want to be like him and
sacrifice myself for the good of others.
When we come to know this Jesus we are faced with a dilemma-do I allow
myself to be transformed into Love? If I
choose to be transformed I must die to my old self. This is where the rub exists. This is where I fail as a disciple, because
if I am honest, I want to have the Jesus that fits my "box". I prefer to be in my comfort zone.
Getting to know Jesus is a
process. He challenges me to get to know him better. I must not be quick to say
"I have him figured out". I
must walk the via dolorosa with him. I must be prayerful like him. I must be a peacemaker like him. I must be open to examine my conscience each day, willing to admit my sinfulness and my need
for Him in my life. I must be more like
him and less like my Self(who wants the easy way, the proud way, all the power,
all the glory for myself).
So the question we reflect on
this week is....who do I say Jesus is?
Let us ponder.
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