21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - A

Readings: Isaiah 22:19-23; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20

Dear brothers and sisters, the liturgy of the word for today invites us all to answer this question: Who is Jesus to me? As the members of the mystical body of Christ, we try our best to listen to Jesus and thus try to model our lives after Him. In doing this, do we really understand and profess about the person whom we follow?

In today’s gospel Jesus is posing to his disciples two questions with different emphasis: Who do people say the Son of Man is? And who do you say I am? When you go further into these two questions, the first question is more about what do people (public opinion) think about Him and the latter is more personal.

Jesus asked these two questions in the region of Caesarea Philippi. It is not a Jewish territory rather Caesarea was a Hellenistic city, populated mainly by gentiles and was a home to a cultic shrine dedicated to the deity Pan. This is to say that Jesus is now away from the surveillance of his opponents and thus poses these two important questions to his disciples. Jesus asked these two questions having spent sometime with them, because he wanted to make sure that they are on the right path.

When Jesus asked the first question, who do people say the Son of Man is, the disciples started to answer him immediately, because it did not demand any personal reflection rather it was just telling Jesus what people thought that Jesus was. They said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. In all these responses the common thread that unites these opinions is the perception that Jesus stands in the line of the prophets.

Now Jesus likes to know what his disciples thought about Him, so Jesus asked them, “who do you say the Son of Man is? Peter said, “You are the Christ the Son of the living God”. Peter was able to say this because of his previous encounter with Jesus one such was walking on water towards Jesus (Mt 14: 28). When Peter expressed his understanding of Jesus, then Jesus immediately told him that ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.

For today, let me just reflect with you on this statement of Jesus about Simon Peter: ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! How did Simon Peter receive this appreciation from Jesus? This is merely through his finding of God in his life. Similarly when we find and profess that Jesus is our Lord and master then we all become a happy person. So, let us try to find God in everything we do and thus profess his name at every moment in our lives and thus live a life of happiness joy and love.

So, let us continue to ask ourselves: Who is Jesus to me?

God bless