Old timers might remember ditto copiers. They were alcohol based so when Fr. Vincent would bring in what he called “a quickie,” a short test to see how much Greek we had learned, we could smell trouble coming. That smell still fills me with dread. When Jesus asks his disciples “But who do you say that I am?” he was giving a test as well. But this was not the kind of test where you recited the lesson you had just heard. It was more like the kind of test that a medical student has to undergo — not so much do you know the right answer but have you absorbed the lesson so thoroughly that it is not what the teacher said but what you have incorporated into your very being. It wasn’t sufficient for Peter and the rest to give the right catechism answer. Jesus’ question challenged them (and challenges us) — have you taken deep into your heart what I have been saying so that it transforms you and the entire way you look at the world.
