Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Not because Jesus was having an identity crisis, he asks his disciples who they thought he was. Peter confesses that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” As I said last week about the story of the Canaanite woman, Matthew wants his readers know that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. What happens after this is truly meaningful. Jesus does not ASK Peter who Peter is. Jesus TELLS Peter who Peter is - the rock on which he will build his church. In fact, Jesus defines two things - Peter and the church. Jesus was not having a identity crisis. Jesus was giving Peter and the church a vision and a mission.
Who Defines You? The human person is pulled in so many directions. The other day I was sitting at the doctors office for an appointment. Doctors offices always have a TV that tells us what else might be wrong with us. I tuned the TV out and was working on my homily on why laptop. Suddenly, I heard a female voice on the TV say, “Hey, you!” Then silence. And again, “Yes, you! Look up! Not at your phone, not at your tablet, not at your computer.” I was totally amused. A gadget was asking me not to pay attention to the other gadgets. This is a great analogy of the many directions in which the human person is pulled. As it is, we are stressed out beyond our limits by our work commitments, demands of the family, and by the uncertainty of our lives. As we get pulled in these many directions, it is vitally important that we know who we are and the things that are at the core of our being. Did you read the news that Americans are consuming alcohol more than ever before? Even professionally successful people find themselves discontented. The opioid crisis is wiping an entire generation. What is at the core of our beings? It can’t be Facebook. Its got to more than Reds or Patriots, our gadgets, our music or our pursuit of wealth and fame. Really, Who are you? What defines you? What does Jesus have to do with your how we think of ourselves? Who would Peter be without his understanding of Jesus? The point I am trying to make is that it is when Peter defined Jesus that Peter finds his own vision and mission. If we want to know who we are, we have to first define who Jesus is for us!
- What Kind of Church? There is a second important part to the gospel. Jesus says to Peter, “… and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” Jesus says, “upon this rock I will build MY church.” It is not Peter’s church. It is Christ’s church. At his election in March 2013, Pope Francis reminded his audience that Jesus and not the pope was the center of the church. He said, “Christ is the center, not the successor of Peter. The center is Jesus Christ, who calls us and sends us forth. If the church “makes herself the ‘center,’ she becomes merely functional, and slowly but surely turns into a kind of NGO.” I think, as the successor of Peter, Pope Francis is reminding us of a very important fact - that through the course of history, the church must find itself in Jesus Christ. The church cannot get caught up with itself, its self-preservation, or with conservative or liberal ideologies. The church must be caught up with the mission of Jesus Christ and his gospel. The only way the netherworld will not prevail against the church will be if the church remains the church of Jesus Christ. Pope Francis defined the church thus: “The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle.” Again he says, “The church is not a museum of saints, but a hospital for sinners.” The greater point is this - this vision of the church that Pope Francis lays out is precisely how Jesus conducted himself in the gospel. Today, the church must constantly find herself in Jesus Christ. If the powers of hell prevail against her, it will be because she is no longer the church of Jesus Christ.
- Divine and Human. When Christ said to Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,” Peter had not yet hit rock bottom. His weakest moment was yet to come. The one who was the made the rock was also the one who denied the Christ. I am often baffled by God’s modus oprenadi or how God operates. As today’s second reading says, “For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?” Christ puts his church in the hands of very weak individuals. It is a total act of trust. In one way or another, Peter is you, Peter is me. Just like Peter, our future is uncertain. May be our worse is yet to come. Yet Christ entrusts himself into our hands; Christ entrusts the church into our hands. Today, I believe that that each one of us must stand before God in total awe - total awe of the fact that Jesus puts himself, his church, and his mission into our weak and feeble hands even though it is totally possible that our worst is yet to come. There is only one way to ensure that we can live up to the trust the God has put in us - that we constantly define ourselves in relation to Christ and his gospel. We must allow Christ to TELL us who we are, like he did with Peter.
The Eucharist is Jesus’ vision and mission for the church - love and life for the world. Let us find ourselves in Christ who comes to in the Eucharist. Amen.
Fr. Satish Joseph