"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
Herod had entertained the idea that Jesus must have been John the Baptist risen from the dead. He had a guilty conscience which definitely made him susceptible to faulty reasoning. But there must still have been a significant connection between the ministry of John and that of Jesus to lead him to this conclusion. Elijah was supposed to return before the day of the Lord. He was therefore another contender for the identity of Jesus. But before the birth of John the Baptist it was prophesied of John that he would walk in the spirit and the power of Elijah. And Jesus himself affirmed that John played this role rather than Jesus. Jeremiah was a persecuted prophet whose life had much in common with that of Jesus. Not only that, as we see in the first reading, he was the only one in the Old Testament to reference a "new covenant" just as Jesus himself would do at the Last Supper. The people proposing these identities for Jesus weren't crazy or guessing at random. They had reasons for their intuitions. But it turned out to be a problem the solving of which required more than cleverness or lucky guesses.
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter said in reply,
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Peter did not pull this answer out of the blue. He had been walking with Jesus, knew his teaching, and knew that he possessed an authority which surpassed any merely human prophetic figure. He certainly had some sense of the greatness and the majesty of Jesus. He was acutely aware of the deficiency of all the common explanations of his identity. Yet reaching beyond that required something more than experience and intellect. It required a revelation from the Father. Peter was situated to receive such a revelation because he had learned to walk in humility alongside Jesus himself. He did not presume to define Jesus because he knew his own explanations would inevitably fall short. But he wasn't content to simply remain in ignorance. Jesus was his friend whom he desired to know. So the Father found a welcome heart to which he could reveal his Son.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
In order to attain to the identity of Jesus faith in the revelation given by God would always be necessary, for the disciples and their followers throughout subsequent generations no less than for Peter. We too are meant to reach a mature faith where we believe not merely because others have said so but because God himself has taught us.
It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ (see John 6:45).
Peter had the advantage of walking with Jesus as his heart was more and more opened, making him able to receive the truth. But when Jesus ascended he did not leave future generations to fall back entirely on themselves. Instead he established a Church, his body, where disciples could safely dwell, seeking more and more to know the Lord, with the assurance that within her walls they would not be misled. The Church was the pillar and foundation of truth (see First Timothy 3:15) within which the treasures of Scripture and Tradition were preserved, the definitive understanding of which was vouchsafed to the Magisterium.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
Peter demonstrated that it is all too easy to go from thinking with a renewed mind at one moment to thinking again in a merely human way the next. He said what he said because he loved Jesus. But in this instance his love was misplaced and even in some sense dangerous. If Peter could go from proclaiming the divinity of Jesus in one moment to inadvertently attempting to derail his mission the next we should learn from this to be on guard ourselves. However much we have received the revelation of the identity of Jesus ourselves we still need his grace at every moment to live lives that correspond to that truth. Peter ultimately required further purification and transformation to be all that he was meant by God to be. And so too do we. The Lord has indeed given us, in baptism, new hearts upon which his law is written. But we always have the choice to live from this new identity or to fall back to what we are without it. May we learn to trust Jesus and to embrace all the parts of his plan and purpose, even when it entails the cross.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
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