(Audio)
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
This is a question that no one can answer for us. Hearing the right answer is not enough. It is no good to say, 'Lord, Lord,' just because we know that is what we should say.
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
We are called to make the answer of Simon Peter our own. He shows us what it means to confess that Jesus is Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not enough to repeat what is true for others. The identity of Jesus must become a reality for each one of us. Simon Peter was so changed by the revelation of the Father that he himself received a new name to reflect that change.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
We ourselves are accounted Christians because we share in this same revelation that Peter first received. Yet the Christian life comes with challenges, as Peter learned again and again. When he forgot this central truth of the identity of Jesus, or tried to control it and make it more understandable, he did not rise to those challenges. He tried to tell Jesus that he had a better plan, not involving death and so was told, "Get thee behind me, Satan!" He denied him three times in Gethsemane. But when he did remember it he was unstoppable.
They passed the first guard, then the second,
and came to the iron gate leading out to the city,
which opened for them by itself.
It was this same revelation that made Paul a powerful evangelist. He did not receive it from flesh and blood and therefore didn't need to consult flesh and blood about it (see Galatians 1:16). Paul and Peter both show us that the revelation of Jesus is not something abstract, not merely a philosophical truth, but one by which he is present in our lives, day to day, moment to moment.
The Lord stood by me and gave me strength,
so that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.
In this sense Christianity is individualistic, that nothing can substitute for the personal encounter of each disciple with Christ. Yet this aspect of the Church does not render the keys given to Peter along with the power of binding and loosing as superfluous. Just as Peter accompanied Jesus for some time before he was able to welcome this revelation, so too does the Church provide a place where Jesus can be encountered with confidence, where his power can be experienced. Peter needed more than just this one experience. He needed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So too did Paul. It wasn't enough to hear that the one he was persecuting was Jesus. It wasn't until his three days of blindness that he was transformed by baptism and the reception of the Holy Spirit. And so for us as well. We come to the Church again and again, turning from the options provided by flesh and blood, because we are in constant need of the Spirit bringing us the revelation of the Father about who Jesus is in such a way that our lives are transformed.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
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