Who Do You Say I Am?

Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Sir 36: 18 Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you, that your prophets be found true. Hear the prayers of your servant, and of your people Israel.

Collect Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Ecclesiastes 3:1-11; Psalm 143; Luke 9:18-22

Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, Who do the crowds say I am? They replied, Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life. But what about you? he asked. Who do you say I am? Peter answered, The Christ of God. Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. And he said, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be put to death and on the third day be raised to life. (Luke 9:18-22)

Who Do You Say I Am? We do not, of course, have the complete works of Aristotle, but we have a thick volume of what is extant of them — notes, jottings, longer treatises. For long centuries since his death three hundred years before Christ, his philosophical material has been the foundation of much of human thought and speculation. But what of his life and person? There never has been a similar interest in that. In a certain sense his life and person are relatively unimportant, whereas his thought has immense significance. He was long regarded as The Philosopher. Many have been enamoured Aristotelians, while knowing virtually nothing of, and having no interest in, Aristotle himself. Again, the plays and poetry of Shakespeare are regarded as literature of genius, and are the object of unending study and education. But what of his life and person? This too has been the object of sustained research — especially in recent years because of his probable Catholicism. Nevertheless, his literary work is seen as of foremost importance. It eclipses his person. One can be an enamoured Shakespearean while having little interest in William Shakespeare himself. Sacred as is the name of Mahomet to the Muslim, what is important for Islam is Allah and the Koran. Mahomet’s work was to be, as Islam views it, Allah’s Messenger, and no more. He is not the object of the Muslim’s life. The Koran is seen as far transcending Mahomet himself. The case is not the same with Christianity and its teaching. Christian doctrine, considered as a body of thought, does not transcend Jesus Christ. In the mind of his followers, the person of Jesus Christ is not eclipsed by his work and his teaching. Christianity is not just a body of revealed thought or writing which has been the object of unending attention and study. Christianity in the first instance is a relationship with a Person. One cannot be a true Christian without knowing, loving and serving that Person, and Christian doctrine is precisely doctrine about that Person.

The New Testament is full of teaching and doctrine. Our Lord began his public ministry with the call to repent, for the Kingdom of God was near. He traveled throughout Galilee and Judea preaching the Kingdom of God, its nature, and its demands for life. The prophets had preached what God required, but with Jesus what became evident was that he himself was to be the object of man’s religion. Take one instance — which, in its own way was breathtaking. We read in the Gospel of St Matthew (19: 16-22) that a man came to Jesus to ask what good deed he had to do to gain eternal life. Keep the commandments, Christ said — an answer that was in the direct line of all the prophets. What more need I do?, the man asked. Then comes an astonishing answer — if Christ were being viewed as merely a great prophet. “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” If you detach yourself from the things of this world and follow me, you will be on the path not only to heaven, but to perfection. The kingdom of God is attained by means of an ardent love for, and following of, Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God consists in a full-hearted union with the person of Jesus Christ. That is to say, the foremost thing about the Christian religion is not the “thought” or the teaching of Jesus Christ, nor, absolutely speaking, his “work,” but his very Person. It is by entering into union with his Person that his “work” is appropriated, and his “thought” or doctrine is made fruitful. The heart, the soul, the length and the breadth of the Christian religion is the Person of Jesus Christ. One cannot merely study the “thought” or teaching of Jesus Christ and be relatively uninterested in his Person. The true Christian totally accepts his teaching precisely because it is the teaching of this particular Person, not because it seems to be excellent teaching. Our Gospel passage today (Luke 9:18-22) comes well into our Lord’s public ministry. A critical step must be made, and that is that his very Person must be known. Who do the crowds say I am? But who do you say I am? It is absolutely essential that we have a true knowledge of Jesus Christ himself.

Jesus of Nazareth, historical figure of a particular time and locality, is the eternal God. He is the Son of God made man, and the long-awaited Messiah. All authority on earth and in heaven has been given to him. He is Master and Lord, Lord of lords and King of kings, the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Word of God, the image of the unseen God, and is himself God. As Pope Benedict is fond of saying, he is the face of God. By knowing, accepting, believing, loving, and following him, we shall be saved. It is he and he alone who can take us to perfection. He, Jesus Christ!

(E.J.Tyler)

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