THE GREAT QUESTION OF FAITH:Who do you say that I am?

Mt 16:13-23

Who do you say that I am? With this brief question Jesus Christ confronted His followers with the most important issue they would ever face. He had spent much time with them and made some bold claims about His identity and authority. Now the time had come for them to confess their faith.

Jesus started giving an easy question: "Who do people say that the son of man is?" The disciples answered: "Well, some say you're John the Baptist ... some say Elijah ... others say, a prophet who come back from the dead." They were happy to be in the safety of collective speculation. But Jesus wouldn't let them stay there for long. The Christ whom we follow is personal. Christ loves all of us and died for the whole world, but he always comes inquiring about my heart, your heart. This is why he asks then: "Who do you say I am?"

Peter spoke: "You are the Christ the son of the living God." This was a very good answer. Of course there are two ways to give answer to that question which give two types of commitment to Jesus Christ: (a) we may answer with our lips, and (b) we may answer with our heart. The first type of commitment is how Peter committed himself to the Lord. It was a commitment from the lips.

It is obvious that Peter gave a remarkably good answer on this particular day. But he demonstrated an entirely different kind of answer all over a sudden. He failed to understand that Jesus was also a “Suffering Messiah” and who will accomplish this by His passion and death on the Cross.

The second type of commitment is that of God as found in the first reading. Jeremiah prophesized saying: “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people.” It is a commitment deeper than the voice and the lips. It is a commitment from the heart. The heart is not simply the center of emotions. The heart is rather the core of the human person; therefore it is a commitment from the core, from the center of the human person.

 Today Jesus asks each one of us: “Who do you say that I am?” it is a personal question that demands a personal response from us. Maybe we have given our life to Jesus or we want to commit ourselves to him but we are still at the level of Peter not judging by God’s standards but by human’s. We are called to commit ourselves to Jesus again according to God’s thinking not ours. Let us not try to make Jesus in our own image and according to what we want. But rather let us be formed into the pattern of his death. Our prayer should be: “Jesus, may you not fit into my life, but may I fit into yours.

Let us learn from these  words of the pencil maker telling his pencils before leaving the factory: “Pencils, remember the following words: first, your value is found within you; second, always allow yourselves to be led and guided by another hand when you write; and third, bear the pain of being sharpened regularly in order to give the best of yourself.