Who do you say that I am? Each of us has to answer that question in a personal way for the answer is not from the head but from the heart.

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A

Isaiah 22:19-23

Romans 11:33-36

Matthew 16:13-20

There was a TV show twenty or so years ago called The West Wing. The president in the show was supposed to be a Catholic and in one episode his former pastor comes to visit him. When the priest calls him by his given name – which is how he has known him for decades – the president pulls him aside. “When we are here in the White House, Father,” he says, “you should call me Mr. President.” Calling him by his new title instead of the familiar name was necessary to keep the relationship in right order.  Something similar seems to be in work in the scene St. Matthew describes in the gospel. Who do you say that I am? You are the Christ. In the Jewish world of Jesus and his disciples being “the Christ” – or as it would have been said in Hebrew, “the Messiah” — carried deep connotations. The Christ was the one who was going to “restore Israel” against the hated Romans. The Christ was going to make the nation great as it was in the time of King David. The Christ was going to make everything right again. By naming Jesus as the Christ the relationship that Peter and the other disciples had with Jesus was going to be different. He was no longer just their teacher and mentor. He was now the one in whom they placed all their hopes and dreams. He was their future.

That helps to explain the two questions that Jesus posed to them. “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” “Who do you say that I am?” The first questions the accepted wisdom, the word on the street, public opinion. The second is personal, demanding risking yourself in answer. It’s like the difference between “Am I loveable?” to “Do you love me?” You can only answer the second question by putting yourself out there. The same is true for questions of faith. We can answer the question “who does the Church say that Jesus is?” by quoting from creeds and  catechisms. “God from God, light from light, true God from true God.” The catechism describes Jesus as the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, embodying both divine and human natures. The tradition applies particular terms to Jesus: Lord, Redeemer, Savior, Word, Lamb of God, Good Shepherd, Messiah. We inherited those terms from the Bible and Christian tradition. None of them answer the second question: who do you say that I am? To answer that requires looking at ourselves, our own lives, our personal experience, our individual encounters. Each of us has to answer that question in a personal way for the answer is not from the head but from the heart.

The problem, of course, comes in that there is a two-thousand-year gap between Jesus posing the question to Peter and posing the question to us. Peter walked the dusty roads of Galilee with Jesus and saw him up close and personal. He interacted with him on a daily basis. We are dependent on what others have said about Jesus – in the Bible, in sermons, in study. In prayer we come to meet Jesus in a real way – but we are always tempted to make Jesus into the kind of person we would like him to be instead of meeting him as he is.

Who do you say that I am? We certainly can and should think of Jesus in the traditional terms we have inherited, to call Jesus the Christ. But the challenge “who do you say that I am?” requires a personal response from each one of us as individuals. Let me share with you my response to see if it might stir your own thoughts and prayers about Jesus. If Jesus asked me “who do you say I am?” I would answer: you are God with us. That was, of course the title that the angel told Joseph announcing Mary’s pregnancy. “He will be called Emmanuel, a name which means God is with us.” At the end of Matthew’s gospel are Jesus’ last words: “I am with you always until the end of the world.” As the song goes, I will be with you, that is my promise. Jesus is the one with me, with us, in all things.

How do I experience that kind of presence? First of all, in you, for you are the Body of Christ. As we gather together in prayer and fellowship Christ gives us the blessed assurance of his presence among us. We ARE the body of Christ because Jesus has named us and claimed us. Oh, I know we don’t look like it all the time. We are full of faults and failings, we can be petty and selfish, we do occasionally inflict hurt upon one another. But being the Body of Christ is not something that we do but something that God does in us and for us. We learn a little more each day how to love and care for one another and that is how God is with us.

One concrete manifestation of God being with us is around the altar of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus wanted to make sure that those following him over the centuries would have direct access to his presence in our hearts and in our lives. The Eucharist fulfills that desire by enabling the Real Presence of Christ to enter deep with our being.

And we can know God is with us when we care for the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the stranger. Jesus told us that whatsoever we do to them, we do to him. So those actions that we take as a Church to reach out those who are hurting in our day gives us a direct connection with the Christ who lived back in the day.

Who do you say that I am? You are the one who is with me in Church, in Communion, in charity. Yes, I am with you always until the end of the world.