“But who do you say that I am?”

In our Gospel reading this Sunday, Jesus puts a very pointed question to His disciples— “Who do you say that I am?” Before He does this, He asks them: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Whether we recognize it or not, this is also a question that Jesus puts to each one of us. In fact, the fact that we are here at Mass this morning means that we are answering Christ’s question. You and I get up on a Sunday morning and make time to come to Mass, because like Peter, we too believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. To make this choice, to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is not an easy choice to make. Like the disciples, we who are Jesus’ disciples of today, live in a world that says that Jesus is many different things. Just as Christ’s original disciples report that the world says many different things about Jesus— that He is John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or a Prophet— so too our own world reports that Jesus is many different things. Today there are many who say that Jesus was a good person, a profound thinker, or one who was deeply compassionate and truly understood the human condition. All of these are beautiful answers, but they do not explain why you and I, and billions of people throughout time, have professed Jesus to be the Son of God and the Messiah who has come to bring us eternal life. Ultimately, the reason why you and I get up and come to Mass is because like Peter, we too believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And as Jesus tells Peter, this is not a fact that is revealed to us by flesh and blood, but rather a gift that we have received from the Father in faith.

This passage that we hear today from the Gospel of Matthew is one that has had great importance for our Roman Catholic tradition. This text, and the ones which correspond to it in the other Gospels, has helped to justify the Roman Catholic Church’s belief that Christ established the Church and entrusted its governance to Peter, the Apostles and their successors. A very important part of our Catholic tradition is that we belong to a Church. This Church is a community that has received from God a gift of faith and we believe the Apostles have been entrusted with the task of handing this faith on from generation to generation. Many of the Protestant and reform traditions have rejected the notion that their is a Magisterium, or teaching authority, that was established by Christ to pass on His teachings and keep the community of believers united. One of the very strong beliefs in the Protestant and Reformed traditions is that each individual is the interpreter of what Christ has revealed and taught. This is perhaps one reason why there are literally hundreds of thousands of different Protestant and Reformed Churches— anyone who wants to found a Protestant or Reformed Church is free to do so. The history of the Reformed traditions has actually been that of individuals founding their own Churches— from Henry VIII, or the ex-priests Luther, Zwingli and many others. Even today, there are countless ex-priests and disgruntled Catholics who are angry at the Church and have tried to found their own religions and faith communities. As Catholics, one of beliefs is that Jesus founded our Church and established it upon the confession of faith of a weak man like Peter.

One of the reasons why so many people find it difficult to believe that Christ established a Church is because He used weak human beings to do so. Our own parish church tells some of the story of his weakness and the power of Christ’s grace in his life. Eleven of the seventeen windows that are in our church show the life of Saint Peter, our parish’s Patron Saint. Like all of us, Peter was a weak human being. At times he did not understand what Jesus was talking about. As we heard in the Gospel just a few weeks ago, there were times that Peter started to follow Jesus and as he did so he began to panic and began to sink in the water. Peter had a temper, and as a result of this temper, he cut off the ear of one of those who were trying to arrest Jesus. Even after Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, he will try to tell Jesus that it is not right that the Son of Man should suffer. We will see in the Gospel next week that Peter will try to convince Jesus that He should not suffer to redeem humanity and Christ will tell Him very pointedly to stop trying to dissuade Him from doing God’s will, with the very strong words: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” The truth is, Peter is such a great example for all of us because most of us also think as human beings do. We need the example of Peter to show us what we are capable of being if we allow God to work within us. The fact that Peter denies Christ three times, allows all of us to see that we too can be saved after we have denied Christ. The Gospels are ultimately a story of the goodness of God and His saving power as manifested in Christ. Throughout the Gospels we see how weak humans are and how powerful Christ and his transforming grace can be when weak humans allow Jesus to work in their lives. Because humans are weak, the text from this Sunday is also seen as one of the texts that are used for the establishment of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Church’s teaching authority. It is because of our acknowledged weakness that we begin every Mass with the Penitential Rite. The central proclamation of our Church is not the greatness of its members, but the greatness of our God and the power His grace can have in our lives, if we acknowledge Him as our Messiah and as the Son of God.

So convinced was Peter that Jesus was the Son of God that after His resurrection, he spent the rest of his life travelling the world to share this Good News. Peter left everything, his wife, his career, his family and his homeland to travel the world preaching the Good News about the eternal life which he had received from Christ. His work as an evangelist also reminds us that we too have a mission to speak of Christ’s Good News and our belief that He is the Messiah. Our own parish has a great history in this regard. For many years, if a person wanted to become a Catholic in Toronto, they would come to this parish and take a course in Catholicism in order to the received into the Church. The Paulist Centre, or the Catholic Information Centre, was where people used to come in Toronto to become a Catholic. This changed dramatically after the Second Vatican Council when the Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults were re-introduced into the life of the Church. What is so distinct about the Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults, or the R.C.I.A., as they are more commonly called, is that they reflect the reality that Christianity is a way of life and not about a course. The rites of the R.C.I.A. are intended to help people become members of the community, not just share information with them. For that reason, they are intended to take place and be celebrated in the parish community where the person will live and practice his or her faith. The rites aim to incorporate the individual into the parish community where he or she will receive the Eucharist and live as a member of the Church. For this reason, they no longer just take place at the Catholic Information Centre, but in each parish of the Archdiocese and here at the parish of St. Peter’s. The new rites assume that people will be received into the parish that they will attend after they are baptized or confirmed. This is why when people from Barrie or Mississauga call our parish to become Catholic, I tell them to call the parish where they live or hope to attend Mass every Sunday. They are to join the R.C.I.A. in the community where they will receive the Eucharist from Sunday to Sunday and be a member of a Christian community.

One of the other beautiful things about the Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults, or the R.C.I.A., is that they are based upon the idea that all of the baptized, all of Christ’s disciples today, have a role to play in spreading the Good News. These rites assume that every member of the Church, all of the baptized, are responsible for bringing Christ’s Good News to others. They assume that like Peter, each one of us has a mission to go out and tell others about the salvation that is to be found in Christ and His Church. In fact this week, that is the mission that I wish to share with all of you who are attending Mass here this Sunday. At the end of each Mass, we are all sent out to share the Good News that we have celebrated here at the Sunday Eucharist. This week, as you are sent out into the world to share the Good News, I would like to ask you to invite anyone that you might know who would be interested in becoming Catholic to consider jointing the R.C.I.A . in the parish where they will attend Sunday Mass. I am not asking you to invite them to join our parish’s R.C.I.A., but the R.C.I.A. in the parish where they will attend Sunday Mass. If they would like to attend Sunday Mass here, they are welcome to join our R.C.I.A.  Our own programme consists of attending Sunday Mass here on the weekend and Tuesday night sessions that reflects on the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist and the teachings of the Church. Over the coming year, the different rites of the R.C.I.A. will be celebrated at our Sunday Masses and beginning in November, once our candidates have been admitted to the Catechumanate, they will begin to be sent out from the Sunday Mass to reflect on the Scripture readings until that are received into the Church at Easter and can join us for the celebration of the Eucharist. The R.C.I.A is intended for anyone who is not Catholic, non-baptized or baptized in another denomination, and would like to become Catholic. These rites are not intended for a person who is Catholic and would simply like to learn more about the faith. For those who are Catholic and would like to learn more about the faith, the parish has all sorts of faith formation programmes from Alpha, Catechism Programmes or Bible Study Programmes. If you speak to people this week about the R.C.I. A., should you meet anyone who might be interested in attending Mass at our parish and joining our programme, please do not hesitate to ask them to give me a call at the parish office— 416-534-4219.

This week, Jesus asks us, as He did Peter, the powerful question, “Who do you say that I am?” He asks this in order that we might profess our faith in Him and be saved. He also asks us in order that once we have answered it, we, like Peter, might also tell others who Jesus is— the saviour of the world. This week, as we are sent from Mass to share the Good News with others, I would ask that you also tell others about who Jesus is for you and invite them to consider taking the time to consider who Jesus is by attending the R.C.I.A. in the parish community where they will be most comfortable celebrating this salvation at the Sunday Eucharist.

May we all have the courage of Peter to speak of who we believe Jesus to be.

Blessings for this Sunday!

Fr. Michael McGourty
Pastor— St. Peter’s Parish— Toronto.