Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 16, 13-20
Archbishop John Dew of Wellington, New Zealand is a person I admire when it comes to knowing people personally. Even people that he would only see about once a year, he would remember the name and also associate them with their friends and relatives. A lot of people in the archdiocese are amazed about his ability to memorise thousands of names and at the same time, he could remember a thing or two about the person that he is talking to.
In the gospel for today, Jesus posed a very serious question to his disciples. First, he asked, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Jesus is doing a sort of self-appraisal of his ministry. Has his message sunk in with the people he is ministering to? Have they understood who he is, what he represents and is talking about? Have the people understood his identity? And true enough, his disciples gave three possible answers: John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, who by this time had been beheaded already by Herod the Tetrarch; Elijah, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament who went to heaven, body and soul, through a chariot of fire; or one of the prophets, and most probably they might be talking about Jeremiah, another great prophet of the Old Testament. And having received that answer, Jesus asks his own disciples, the group of men who know him best, for they are with him most of the time, who they say he is. Expectedly, Peter, who acts as the spokesman of the disciples declared: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus was so glad about that answer for he knew that at least Peter “got” it!
Now what if Jesus would ask us that question? What would be our answer? I remember a story of a Religious Education teacher asking her students to give a description of God. Some of her students said that God is kind, God is immortal, God is immense, God is holy, etc. Then one girl who was a little bit shy gave her answer and said, “God is small.” The teacher was curious about the answer and asked her further, “Honey, why did you say that God is small.” Then the little girl said, “Well, if God is not small, how could he fit in my heart.”
For us, we are constantly being asked the same question, who is Jesus to us? Is Jesus a stern judge who would send anyone to punishment, anybody who commits even the smallest of sins? Is Jesus a policeman for us, that he is always watching our every move and if we do something wrong he’ll pounce on us immediately? Or is Jesus a brother to us who is always there to listen to our every problem, to laugh at every joke that we make no matter how rotten, to cry about every tragedy that happens in our lives? Or is Jesus a provider of our every need in life? Or we don’t even care to answer the question.
We are the only ones who could answer that question and most of the time our answer is based on our experience of God. Have we exerted any effort of knowing Jesus better? Or we never really had an experience of knowing Jesus? Hopefully, we would be able to answer this question and if not maybe it’s time to know Jesus better and definitely we will never be disappointed.
Church History has always been a very interesting topic. The history of the Catholic Church is as colourful as World History if not more. Our church, even though it is founded by Jesus Christ on the rock which is Peter, has members who are all human, so don’t be surprised that all throughout its history, it has undergone dozens of scandals and even some of its popes are so shameful that if there were tabloids during those times, they would be in them every week even long after they’ve died. And yet, the Catholic Church remains standing, for all its turbulent history. This is because Jesus promised that even the gates of the netherworld would never overcome it.
Our Church has survived wars, barbarians, plagues, and invasions and it is still there as strong as ever. And yet, we are always called to pray for our church especially our Pope Francis, our local bishop, our parish priest and all those who are in leadership positions in the church that they may continue to uphold the promise of Jesus to Peter.
The gospel for today has led us to two important points, First, to identify who is Jesus in our lives and second, to continue to pray for our church so that it becomes stronger and hopefully it will become the Bride of Christ at the end of time. May these lessons for this week continue to help us in our journey towards Christ and remind us of who Jesus is in our lives and be confident that whatever happens we will be safe because our Church is standing on a rock and that is St Peter.