As Jesus gazes across the centuries, how do you respond to the question: "Who do you say that I am?"

 

Twenty First Sunday in OT  A  2023

 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asked his disciples two questions:  The first was an informational discussion question: “Who did people say that I am?”  It was a warmup question.

The Lord’s second question was the real gut question Jesus was asking.  It was a heart question, a faith question: “Who do you that I am?”

 Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus said to him:  “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah…And so, I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.”  In Peter’s answer, he was saying that his relationship with Jesus was the commitment that defined his life.

St. Peter is a paradoxical leader of the Church in that he exhibits both strength and weakness in his faith journey.  In next Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus is saying to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan!  You are an obstacle to me.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

And yet, Peter was chosen to be the first pope not by accident, but rather by divine design.  His very failure became his credential to be the foremost preacher of God’s limitless mercy.

Can you resonate with that powerful statement?  Where in your life are you most aware of your need for the merciful love of Jesus?  What weakness, failure, or sinfulness puts you most in touch with your need for God’s healing grace? St Paul proclaims that we have this treasure in earthen vessels.  God lives within us surrounded by the humanness of who we are.  Yet, God chooses to witness to his merciful love in the lives of others.

I know for myself when I am in touch with my own sinfulness, when I too quick to judgment on others, when I carry the weight of the world on my own shoulders, I am most challenged to trust in the limitless mercy of Jesus.

 

 

 

 

Going back to Peter, people would see in the face of Peter the look of one who knows the giving and forgiving God.  Peter would speak from his own experience: “Do not be afraid.”  God’s love has pursued Peter in his sin and found him and gave him a new life.  Peter was a sinner saved by the love of Jesus.   The Good News Peter would fearlessly proclaim is God’s love will pursue you in your sin and find you and give you new life. 

There is nothing you can do that is going to stop God from loving you.

We Catholics boldly speak of the primacy of the pope.  What of the primacy of our first Pope?  Peter has primacy because he is first in failure, first in suffering, first in his need for God’s mercy to serve the Church.  Somehow Jesus understands that Peter can only preach God’s reconciling love if he first experiences it himself.  It is because Peter will fail so completely and weep so bitterly over his denial of Jesus that, when he is finally reconciled with Jesus at the Sea of Tiberius, he will truly understand God’s message of mercy.

This realization in the life of Peter leads us to ask ourselves:  what are our credentials to proclaim the limitless mercy of God?  Perhaps it is our own failures and weaknesses that have been forgiven by God’s grace that leads us to share God’s merciful love with one another.

Pope Francis began his time as pope by acknowledging that he was a sinner and that God had first “mercied” him before choosing him.  He was chosen to be pope because he was well acquainted with the mercy and forgiveness of God.

In the penitential rite at the beginning of the celebration of the Eucharist, we acknowledge and celebrate our need for God’s merciful forgiveness.  Before receiving Communion, we say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but say only the word and my soul shall be healed.”  The Eucharist is not a reward for the perfect.  The Eucharist is God’s gift of love to us who are not worthy, who are sinners, but are grateful for the merciful love of Jesus that is shared with us.

 

 

 

In the Gospel, Jesus said to Peter: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”  The first and the most important power that was given to Peter and his successors was the forgiveness of sins.

As you pray over this beautiful Gospel, may we discern that certain keys have been entrusted to each of us.   What keys has the Lord entrusted to you?    With the keys that have been given to us, we are to open the way to Jesus for others instead of locking those doors.  We should welcome more people that we turn away and serve more people than we refuse.  Jesus comes to give us Good News that we are to share with others.

As we look to receive the Eucharist in our liturgy, may the grace of Communion encourage us in those moments when we recognize and tend to the presence of Jesus in the poor.  The grace of Communion will enable us to speak out against injustice and translate our words into actions.  The grace of Communion will be there on those days when we give of ourselves to help, to listen, to serve, and to befriend.  Grace will inspire us to quiet ourselves, to pray and to allow the presence of God a place in our lives.  Grace will move us to put others and their need ahead of our own.

May the struggles of our life lead us to trust in Jesus as the source of our inner strength.    Deep within is the person God our Father dreams we can be.  May all of us commit ourselves to do what the Lord asks of us in the building of the Church.  We are to be merciful for God has shown us mercy.

As Jesus gazes across the centuries to today, how might you respond to the question: “Who do you say that I am?”

 

Have a Blessed Day.