“Who do you say that I am?”
As Jesus puts this question to Peter in this Sunday’s Gospel, there is a possibility that we might hear it as a question that He is putting only to Peter as a way of inviting Peter alone to make a profession of faith regarding Jesus’ identity. It is, however, clear from the way that Jesus responds to Peter’s answer that Jesus has far more in mind then simply asking Peter whom He thinks Jesus to be. Jesus responds to Peter’s answer by telling him exactly what His mission is about and by explaining to Peter that those who truly believe that He is the Christ must live their lives in a way that reflects what they profess Him to be.
As soon as Peter has confessed who it is that He believes Jesus to be—“The Christ of God”—Jesus explains to Peter what this means and speaks of the way in which people who confess this must live their lives. Jesus tells Peter that the mission of the Christ is to be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and on the third day to be raised. The resurrection of which Jesus speaks entails the gift of eternal life for all people who believe in Him. Immediately after Jesus has told Peter what His mission is, He tells Peter what the mission of His own followers must also be. He says: “If anyone wants to be my follower, let him deny Himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will save it.” Jesus does not say to Peter, “if you wish to be my follower,” as though this was something intended only for Peter and the Apostles to worry about. He says, “If anyone wishes to be my follower,” indicating that all of us are called to follow Jesus by modelling our lives on who we claim we believe Him to be. As the Gospel antiphon states: “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord, I know them, and they follow me.”
In our Christian faith we confess Jesus to be many different things—teacher, healer, friend, companion, and Saviour are just a few examples. Each one of these aspects ought to inform the way we live our lives. Obviously, no one homily could completely deal with all of the ways that what we profess about Jesus should influence our lives. This Sunday, as we hear this Gospel in the Year of Mercy, it is important to ask how what we believe about Jesus in the Year of Mercy should affect the way in which we respond to His presence in our lives.
In this Year of Mercy, as the Church answers the question “who do you say that I am” by professing Jesus to be the face of the Father’s mercy,” we are also invited to understand that if we believe Jesus to be merciful, if we wish to become His disciples, we too must be merciful. For many people, mercy is something that they demand for themselves, but have no interest or desire to show to anyone else. In this Year of Mercy, we are called to recognize what God has done for us and show this same kindness to others. Using the words of today’s Gospel, the Son of Man has been betrayed to death and raised “so that we may have life.” This is how He has shown His mercy. If we wish to be His followers, we cannot just expect that mercy be shown to us; we must take up our crosses and do the same to others so that we too may have life in His name. While there are many qualities about God’s mercy that we are called to imitate in this Year of Mercy, there are three that I would like to highlight as essential to our Christian faith. They are: 1) that we ourselves should be forgiving; 2) patient and 3) generous.
In this Year of Mercy, the Church is proclaiming how forgiving God is. Many people who insist that God forgives them will never forgive others. We can never underestimate how important it is in our faith that we forgive as we wish to be forgiven by God. This is at the heart of the “Our Father,” where we pray to be forgiven as we forgive those who trespass against us. To be a follower of Jesus means that we must be a person who can forgive—no matter what the slight. We can never forget that Jesus forgave those who crucified Him and said that we must forgive seven times seven—which means always. Learning to forgive is part of taking up our cross and living our life so we may gain it back through Christ.
In this Year of Mercy, we are confessing how patient God is with each of us. God never gives up on us. It is sad to say, but sometimes Christians are the most intolerant people on the face of the earth. I was recently told of a person who stopped going to Mass because a priest was too busy to sign his passport application. Rather than ask when he could come back, this person simply decided not to go to Mass any more and never to come back. One of the things I learned a long time ago, is that people like this are often the most hopeless types of Christians, since they are often only looking for a reason not to follow Christ. The only thing that I think can be done for these people is to pray for their conversion. Jesus often tells us in the Scriptures that the way we judge others is how He will judge us. If we want Jesus to be patient and tolerant with us, we must be this way with others. This is what it means to be a follower of Christ.
In the Year of Mercy we celebrate how generous God is with us. God has done everything to save us. The generosity of God calls those who wish to be His disciples to also be generous with God and others. Disciples of Christ are called to a generosity of time, treasure and talent. We cannot be Christians on a time clock, simply putting in our one hour every week. The Christian must ask him or herself “how generous do I believe God is with me?’ Whatever our answer, that is how generous we are called to be with God and His Church. If we believe God is generous, to be His disciples involves a call for us to reflect this generosity in our faith response to God.
“Who do you say that I am?” is not a question that Jesus puts only to Peter. This is the question that He puts to every Christian. How we answer this question must inform how we live our Christian faith. Jesus is very clear about this: “If anyone will become my follower, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” This year, collectively as a Church we are professing the mercy of Jesus and of God the Father. Professing God’s mercy means that we too must be merciful as our Father in heaven. God’s mercy shows itself by His forgiveness, patients and generosity with us. These qualities are qualities that we must struggle to make qualities of our own life. This is not an easy task, but in our struggle to live this way we must rely upon the grace of the God of mercy, keeping in mind that “whoever wants to save their life will lose it and whoever loses their life for my sake will save it.”
Fr. Michael McGourty
Pastor – St. Peter’s Church, Toronto
