Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading:: Isaiah 22:19-23 – I place the key of the House of David on my servant’s shoulder.

Responsorial Psalm:Psalm 137(138):1-3, 6, 8 – Your love, O Lord, is eternal: discard not the work of your hands.

Second Reading:Romans 11:33-36 – All that exists comes from him; all is by him and from him.

Gospel:Matthew 16:13-20 – You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.

One of the clever ways by which people try to hide their personal opinion is to put such opinion in the mouth of the anonymous “they”. It is not uncommon to hear people make such statements as “they are not happy with you”, “they are complaining about you”, etc., when in actual fact they mean, “I am not happy with you”. When people make such statement using “they”, what they generally mean is “I”. A young man aspiring to a political office once paid a visit to one of those political godfathers to seek his blessing. The godfather said: “My people don’t like you”. Then the young aspirant said bluntly to him: “But, do you like me, sir?” to which the godfather stuttered: “… em, em, well…!”

When Jesus asked the apostles the question, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” he was not bothered so much about what people were thinking about him as to know whether the thinking of the apostles were any different from that of the people. The second more direct question confirms this. When the first question of what the people were saying about the identity of Jesus was asked, there were many and varied replies from the apostles. None of these replies, however, was arbitrary. Each had a basis in the Jewish apocalyptic expectation and of the identity of the Messiah. Let us closely look at these various replies:

John the Baptist: King Herod and co belongs to this group, who thought that Jesus was John raised to life. He even expressly stated this when he heard about the preaching of Jesus. He had a first-hand encounter with John the Baptist; and was brutally familiar with his style of preaching, having been confronted by John. That confrontation led to his ordering for his beheading. Now, Jesus, who was preaching in the same Johannine style – end of age, coming of judgment – was understandably thought by Herod to be John raised from the dead.

Elijah: The Jews expect Elijah to reappear on earth in the last days, in order to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. According to their world-view, the reappearance of Elijah would signal the imminent advent of the Messiah. One of the rituals of the Jewish Passover celebration is the five cups of wine that are filled up as part of the ceremony. However, only four of those cups of wine are consumed. The fifth cup – called the “cup of Elijah” – is filled up with wine but not consumed. It is their belief that it is only when Elijah reappears that they will now consumed the wine in that cup. This will signal to them that the Messiah is close at hand. Whereas Jesus was thought by many to be the Elijah that has come to prepare the way for the Messiah, Jesus himself thought that John the Baptist was that Elijah, but that people did not recognise him as such (cf. Matthew 17:10-13).

Jeremiah: Why did some people believe that Jesus was Jeremiah? It was Jeremiah who prophesized the establishment of the New Covenant (Jer.31:31-34), and the words of Jesus mirrored the language of that New Covenant prophecy. It was not therefore surprising that some people reasoned that anyone who could perfectly mirror those new covenant words must be the person who prophesized them.

The Prophets: Deuteronomy 18:15-22 promised that in the days of restoration of the nation, God would send them a greater prophet like Moses, to whom the nation would finally give obedience. The words and works of Jesus made some people to think that he was one of those prophets.

When Jesus asked the apostles their direct personal thinking about him, it was obvious that most of them were not thinking any different from what “the people” were thinking. It was only Peter, under the revelation of God, who was able to describe the accurate person of Jesus. This confession of Peter saw the beginning of the series of statements pointing to the “Primacy of Peter”; including the giving of the keys of the Kingdom to him (we shall not delve into the Petrine Primacy in the present homily).

Who do you say Jesus is? Who is Jesus for you? These are the questions that every believer must have to answer for himself/herself. We have all heard and read from different sources, about who Jesus is. However, if you don’t have a deep-rooted conviction of who he is for you as an individual, you are no different from others. Sometimes, our “knowledge” of Jesus is so mechanical that there is lack of interpersonal relation between us and Jesus. When Peter declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, he was not making a mechanical statement like “the people”; he was making a confession of faith. This was the reason Jesus replied that it was not “flesh and blood” that revealed this to him, but rather his Father in heaven. No wonder he declared him “blessed” and turned him into a rock on which to build his Church, as well as handed him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. What Jesus expects of us believers is not a mechanical knowledge of him but a confession of faith. This is what is going to distinguish us from others.