Today Jesus looks at his closest disciples – after being
together a couple of years – and says, “Who do people say I am?” – and then – “Who
do you say I am?”
This question is of
course intended for us too. He looks at all of us who call ourselves His followers
– Christians – and repeats the same question
...
Do you know me?
What makes this gospel so important for us is that it points
out what our faith is really all
about. It’s about a relationship. It’s about knowing Jesus. Christianity is not an institution; it’s a relationship
with a person. To be a Christian is to stand before Jesus and answer his
question – Do you know me? Who do you say
I am?
Do you know him?
When Jesus asked Peter and the other apostles those questions, they had been traveling from town to
town, for many months. Peter and the others had left behind their regular lives.
They made a huge commitment and effort to
get to know Jesus because they recognized something remarkable in Him.
Think for a minute about the things they saw – over those
months.
- They saw him heal people of leprosy, blindness and being paralyzed.
- They saw him raise a widow’s son from the dead and bring Jairus' daughter back to life.
- They saw him calmed a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee with a command
- They helped as he fed thousands of people in the middle of nowhere from a couple of loaves of bread.
My guess is they had more than a few late night discussions around
the camp fire talking about this question of who Jesus was. But Jesus didn’t want
to know what they thought about his miracles. He wanted to know if they knew Him.
When Peter answered him and said, "You the Son of the
living God;" Jesus said something we all need to think about.
What He didn’t say was: “Good for you
Peter, you figured this out on you own. No,
he said, "Blessed are you, Simon. For
flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” It
wasn’t Simon Peter’s powers of observation
or Simon Peter’s brilliant mind that allowed him to know who Jesus was; it was a gift from God the Father.
Faith is a gift.
The spiritual insight God gave Simon Peter was a gift. St. Paul
once said, "no one can say ‘Jesus is
Lord’, except by the Holy Spirit." We
must have the help of the Holy Spirit, who opens the eyes of the mind and heart,
who makes it possible for us to accept
and believe the truth. That doesn’t mean Peter’s faith that Jesus was the Son
of God was a blind faith. It was grounded
in reason, rooted in his experiences of that year. God put an understanding of
who Jesus was on Peter's heart through what he witnessed.
We don’t have the advantage the apostles had of being first-hand witnesses of Jesus’ life. But we do have their witness – the story of
salvation history – the Bible. Do we
make an effort to get to know him in the Bible? Do we travel with him in the
Bible?
We also have the benefit of seeing
living witnesses, other followers of Jesus; those canonized by the Church, and
those quietly leading lives of faith, like many of our mothers and fathers.
These are our witnesses, who so often lead us to
faith in Jesus. Lead us to recognize who Jesus is. Ultimately each of us
has the experience of Peter. If we seek to know him, our heavenly Father
reveals to our hearts the truth about Jesus.
Some Christian’s call that moment of recognition a “born again” experience;
that moment of insight – that Ah Ha
moment – when faith begins. That moment when we
come to a place where reason can take us no further and God puts the truth on
our hearts.
Jesus tells us today; faith
is something we receive. It’s a gift from
our heavenly Father, through the workings of the Holy Spirit. And like any gift, the gift of faith needs to
be accepted to receive it. This faith –
this gift – is often passed on to us from our parents like a family heirloom that
we treasure, protect, and hopefully pass
on ourselves. This gift of faith is a gift we are called to give away.
Our Catholic faith isn’t meant to be a private thing – me
and God. Being a Christian – being
“Church” – is supposed to be a relationship. One of the great insights of our Church is that all of us
who believe are members of the Body of Christ. We are the physical representation of Christ
in this world. The Church is the body through
which Christ manifests His life to the world today. When Jesus asks us – “Do you
know me? He is asking us, do you know each other? Are you one body? Do you live
in love, and help each other as I modeled in my life?
While our relationship with Christ is personal, God never
intends it to be private.
This parish – St. Brigid – is trying to become a parish of
friends rather than a parish of strangers; to become the Body of Christ. If Jesus himself disguised as a layperson visited
St. Brigid if he sat somewhere in the
middle, would he feel welcomed, loved, and necessary?
Jesus in the Gospel asks each of us today, “Do you know me?”
And so does Jesus who sits next to you in the Body of Christ ask, “Do you know
me?” Let’s become a parish that says – YES Lord.
We begin to know each other when we share our stories.
In that spirit, I want
to start by telling you a bit about me.
I am a husband to Linda for 42 years this weekend. I am a father to four wonderful
children, who have given me six beautiful
grandchildren. I spent 25 years of my life building a retail business –
until I got cancer – 20 years ago I almost died. Those events
changed my life and led to me becoming a deacon.
My passion in life is helping children born into poverty, helping
them break the cycle of poverty through education. I have been blessed to be
part of helping found two fantastic schools – The Monarch School for
homeless kids; and Nativity Prep Academy a free Catholic college access program
in the inner-city. Recently I’ve been
asked to help to found a new Catholic high school - Cristo Rey high school. Cristo
Rey Schools are Catholic schools that offer a college prep education to
impoverish kids. The unique feature of
this school is that the students all work in corporate American one day a week to
earn money to pay their tuition.
I’d love
to share more of my story with anyone who cares to know. I’d love to know your story. We need to know each other’s story so that we
can answer the question Jesus asks today ...
Do you know me?
Help us become the kind of parish where we know Jesus because we know his body. Let’s
share our lives so that we can say ... YES, Lord ... we
know you.
