In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus asks his close friends how they identify him who they say he is. They can tell him who others say he is, but he wants to know who they say he is. It is an important question. Peter quickly responds: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” How do we respond?
Our answer to this question is important because it shapes our lives more than any other question. It’s a question that should make us stop in our tracks and look, again and again, at our answer. It reveals much about our relationship with God.
The challenge is that we can only answer the question if we know the person of Jesus if we set time aside – not just on Sundays but daily – to get to know him. We do this by watching him in the Gospels as he speaks and teaches, relates with people, and by his actions. “Who do you say I am?”
Sometimes, we think we know who Jesus is. We could repeat the answer that Peter offers. Jesus invites us to provide our response to the question. We can only do this when we know him.
Notice: There is a difference
between knowing about Jesus and what he does and knowing Jesus the person. We hear a lot about Jesus, and we honour and respect him. We profess our love for him. The question Jesus asks Peter, the same question he asks us, goes beyond knowledge. It is a question that comes from a ‘heart-knowing’. This knowing comes from living in a personal relationship with Jesus. It is knowing Jesus heart-to-heart.
This week, we are invited to sit with the question: “Who do you say I am?”
Take time today to ponder the question: “Who do you say I am?”
Can you answer that question from your heart and not from your head?
Is this question inviting you to examine your ‘heart-knowing’ of Jesus?
What do you want to tell Jesus today?
Reflections by Fr Russell Pollitt SJ
