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Matthew 16:13-20
Dear Friends, Peter had quite a journey from the time Jesus asked him to leave his boat and nets and follow Him. He saw it all: the blind seeing, the lame walking, the devils cast out, the loaves and the fish and, of course, his short, ill-fated attempt to walk on the water and a lot more. Now Jesus asks the question, “Who do you say I am?” (Mt 16:15)Peter was ready or at least he thought so. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Mt 16:16)
Peter got it right. Jesus says, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my heavenly Father.” (Mt 16:17)
But once again, Peter was that profoundly human expression of the weeds and the wheat, a mixture of generosity and hard-headedness. In the following paragraph that is next Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus puts Peter down with the powerful phrase, “Get behind me Satan!” (Mt. 16:23)
Peter thought he had arrived but Jesus had to give him the tough love to let him know they were only half way there. Peter had to change. He had to get to know Jesus as the one on the road to Jerusalem, a suffering and rejected Messiah. Peter had to die to his dreams of power, prestige and privilege.
We all have to face the same struggle when we confront the most important question in our lives. Who do we say Jesus is?
Like Peter, we want God to be there for our needs, for our programs, for our dreams. Indeed, God is with us in our struggles but God wants more. Like Peter, we have to mature enough to accept Jesus as the one on the road to Jerusalem revealing a Savior who suffers and dies. Like Peter, we have considerable trouble with this when it comes to us personally taking up our cross and following Jesus.
Jesus invites us to follow Him. We need to pray to do this. We pray for many things but there is no greater gift than to learn that God loves us. As this awareness of God’s personal love grows in our heart, we gradually begin to accept Jesus and His plan rather than imposing our agenda. It is only in the context of this loving relationship with Jesus that we can truly answer the most important question in our life. Who is Jesus for us?
Unlike Peter, we cannot walk and talk with Jesus in the flesh. We can, however, read the and pray the Gospels. We can let the stories enter into our mind and heart. This will lead us to prayer: a conversation with someone we know loves us. Sometimes we can just sit in silence in the presence of this loving God.
This praying of Scripture is a rich tradition in our Catholic faith that is being renewed in our day. It is called, lectio divina. It has four simple steps. First we read the Scripture passage. We ponder and reflect upon it to see how it applies to our lives and how it calls us to change. Then we pray. This is the conversation that is with someone we knows loves us and wants to let us know what that personal love means for us. Then we may be moved to just rest in silence in the presence of this loving God.
This prayer will be very helpful in our response to the most important question we will face in life. Who do we say Jesus is? The right answer is the work of a prayerful lifetime.
In this encounter, Jesus gave Peter a task that we must share. We must identify Jesus. We must believe in him. We must lead others to share our faith and commitment to Jesus. We must do this most especially by the way we live walking in the footsteps of Jesus.
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