Word to the Wise
Friday, September 25, 2009 - Friday in the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
[Haggai 2:1-9 and Luke 9:18-22]"Who do the crowds say that I am?" "But who do you say that I am?"
There's an old fairgrounds attraction expression: "Close, but no cigar!" The response of the disciples to the first question shows that either they've been listening to the crowds (or else the variety of their responses reflects their own situations)! No cigar there! Jesus then raises the "ante" when he asks them directly, "Who do YOU say that I am?" Peter gives a response that, in the Gospel of Luke, earns him and the others a response akin to: "You're close but you don't know what you're talking about!" No cigar there either! If the disciples had asked the old quiz show question, "Will the real Messiah please stand up?" Jesus would stand up and they would be very surprised because the last thing they would have expected in a Messiah is someone who would "suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised." If the principal religious authorities in Jerusalem don't know a Messiah when they see one, how can a bunch of Galilean fishermen, etc., have a clue? In our own time, I wonder what the variety of responses would be if I were to ask Jesus' question of a group of Sunday Mass attendees? Or a group of college students? Or a group of farmers? Or a group of full time church ministers? Peter's response is clearly inadequate because it leaves his own expectations unspoken. In the Gospel of Matthew we discover that Peter does not at all like Jesus' description of what Messiah means. "God forbid that such a thing happen to you!" Asking ourselves what WE mean when we call Jesus "the Messiah" may be a first step to understanding better why we go to Mass on Sunday or believe in Jesus in any way at all! AMEN
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