TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[cappie]

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus has come a little way since having healed the Canaanite woman’s daughter in last week’s reading. Between that passage and todays one, he is fed four thousand men plus women and children he is argued with the Pharisees and other religious authorities about showing them a sign that he is really sent from God. Of course, he had just given them a sign — he had just fed a huge crowd of people out of nothing. Then, after that, even his disciples do not seem to understand who he is or what his mission is. It is one of those times when Jesus must have felt like nobody understood him or his mission, despite him constantly talking about it.

Finally, Jesus directly asks his disciples, “ Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Perhaps he starts with the crowds rather than the disciples because he knows it will be easier for them to talk about other people’s feelings and assumptions, rather than their own.

The reply comes, “ Some say John the Baptist” — which could be a case of mistaken identity on behalf of the crowds, or it could be a case of “he’s back from the dead,” depending on whether they’d heard the news that John had been killed. But then there are also other, definitely “they think you’re back from the dead” cases. One response to Jesus’ question about who the crowds say he is comes in: “Some say Elijah, others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

Then Jesus asks his disciples pointedly about their own views of him: “But you, who do you say I am” A disciple who, up to that point, has been called Simon steps up and delivers: “You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God..”

And just like that, something extraordinary has happened and something hidden has been revealed. They finally said it out loud.

You know those moments when you know something is true, but then when you hear yourself say it, it becomes real for you? This was probably like that for Peter. All of a sudden, things shift dramatically, and you can see things in a way you never have before, all because someone said what he already knew out loud and all the disciples look up and see the same thing.

In a few minutes, everything will be back to normal and Jesus will quickly tell them not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah. But for a few shining moments, everything shifts, and Simon even gets a new name: “ Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man!  So, I now say to you: You are Peter, and, on this rock, I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.”

We are the heirs of Peter and all those who built the church. The church’s history is not a clean one. But every now and then, we find ourselves in a kind of path of totality. Every now and then, everything stops, and we see clearly not only who God is — a self-giving God of love, patience, and welcome — but who we are and who we are meant to be.

We have come from God and we are going to God, and right now, God says: “Who do you say that I am?”

Consider that question for yourself, because it will shape who you – and we – will be. Sometime today for just a moment, say it out loud: Who is Jesus to you? Who is Jesus to our church?

Let us say who we think Jesus is and who we think we are in Christ – out loud. For once, let us look to Christ, and in so doing, may we look up and see the same thing: love, grace, and the path of totality — total, complete, and all-encompassing grace.

 

[cutenickname]

Is this a homily, Father? It is quite good.

[cappie]

Yes