Who Do You Say That I Am?"
A reflection on the readings for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time
By Fr. Maximilian Buonocore, OSB
Readings:
Isaiah 50:5-9James 2:14-18
Mark 8:27-35
Four famous theologians find themselves all at the same time at the historic district of Caesarea Philippi for a theological conference. They decide to take a walk together through the village. Who should appear to them but Jesus, who asks the four famous theologians the same question he asked his disciples 2000 years earlier, “Who do you say that I am?” One of them spoke up quickly and confidently sayinging in reply: “You are the totaliter aliter, the vestigious trinitatum who speaks to us in the modality of Christo-monism.” Thinking the first’s reply rather sparse, the second theologian chimes in: “You are he who heals our ambiguities and overcomes the split of angst and existential estrangement; you are he who speaks of the theonomous viewpoint of the analogia entis, the analogy of our being and the ground of all possibilities.” Then, the third of the theologians, with great confidence, clearing his throat, says: “You are the impossible possibility who brings to us, your children of light and children of darkness, the overwhelming oughtness in the midst of our fraught condition of estrangement and brokenness in the contiguity and existential anxieties of our ontological relationships.” Finally, the fourth theologian, not to be outdone by the others, gets up, and raises his voice: “You are my Oppressed One, my soul's shalom, the One who was, who is, and who shall be, who has never left us alone in the struggle, the event of liberation in the lives of the oppressed struggling for freedom, whose blackness is both literal and symbolic.” Jesus then looks up to heaven and says, “Father, I hate to tell you; these guys don’t know me and they don’t know you.”
The first time Jesus asked his disciples the question, he asked it in the third person: “Who do people say that I am?” He got what I am sure that he was expecting, an answer based on theological reflection applied to Scripture, especially the passages which seemed to predict the return of Elijah or others of the Prophets. This is the type of reply which is comfortable and not personally demanding. It is the type of response that the Pharisees would be comfortable with, which the philosopher-theologians are comfortable with. There is a place for faith expressed through theological reflection, but it is not a living and redemptive expression. Jesus then poses the question to his disciples in a very direct and very personal way: “Who do YOU say that I am?” Posed in this way, the question demands a very personal response from a personal experience of, and personal relationship with Jesus.
In every moment, in every event of my life, Jesus asks me the question, “Who do you say that I am?” In every person I encounter, Jesus presents himself to me asking the question, “Who do YOU say that I am?” He directs this question to me especially when I am engaged in the most trying and challenging circumstances, with people who are most difficult and challenging to work for or work with. He directs this question to me - “Who do YOU say that I am? - most directly, most poignantly, and most personally, when I am feeling most frustrated or angry or resentful or fearful, or mistrustful. He asks me this question when he presents himself in the form of a person in need of my attention and concern. “Who do you say that I am?” He asks me this question when he presents himself in the form of a person in need of my forgiveness and mercy. “Who do you say that I am?” Hopefully, my response will be like that of Peter: “You are the Christ.” This response need not be expressed in words. In fact, my response: “You are the Christ,” must especially be expressed by my actions. My response to Jesus: “You are the Christ,” must be expressed by my loving deeds and my kind response to the other person or persons who are being the most challenging to me. And it must not be done in an artificial way. Loving acts that fulfill the needs of the person before me, whether they be emotional needs or physical needs, guarantee that my expressions of faith are living and redemptive expressions of faith. My loving service to others, especially to those who require mercy and forgiveness, guarantees that my belief, that Jesus is the Messiah, becomes a true faith expression. For, as St. James says, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? . . . If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? . . . faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” If I look at my brother or sister in Christ, and I refuse to show him or her mercy or offer them loving service, I rebuke the Lord just as Peter did, who esteemed the humiliation of rejection, and self-sacrifice associated with bearing persecution, as something that was inconsistent with a Messianic, apostolic mission. If I refuse, in any moment, the cross of humiliation and self-sacrifice, in that moment, the Lord says to me, just as he did to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind, not on divine things, but on human things.” When Jesus sternly ordered his disciples not to tell anyone about his messianic mission, it was not because he did not want them to give testimony to others about this messianic mission, but it was because he wanted them to declare his Messiahship more by deeds and example than by words.
Jesus comes to me in every moment, in every circumstance of my life, and he most especially comes to me as people who challenge me to be patient and merciful, asking me in a very direct and very personal way, “Who do YOU say that I am?” I must answer the question, more with deeds than with words, from the simple facts of my personal experience and relationship with Jesus. My response must flow from the simple acknowledgement of Christ present in the other person, and from the simple response of loving gratitude for that loving presence. My acts of mercy and loving service say to Jesus, “You are the Christ.” If we have a personal experience of him through a life of prayer and good works, then in every moment we can respond with a living and personal faith to his question, “Who do YOU say that I am, from the heart: “You are the Christ.”
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