Who is he for us?

The scene is known.  It took place in the vicinity of Caesarea Philippi.  The disciples have been going with Jesus for some time now.  Why do they follow him?  Jesus wants to know what they think of him:  “And you?  Who do you say that I am?”  This is the also the question that we Christians today have to ask.  Who is Jesus for us?  Who do we make him out to be?  Do we follow him?

Who is he for us, this Prophet from Galilee who has not left behind writings but only witnesses?  It is not enough for us to call him “God’s Messiah.”  We have to keep on walking on the path he has opened, to light today also the fire he wanted to set ablaze in the world.  How can we speak so much about him without feeling his thirst for justice, his desire for solidarity, his will for peace?

Have we learned from Jesus to call God “Father,” trusting his unconditional love and his infinite mercy?  It is not enough to recite the “Our Father.”  We have to bury once for all the sacred phantoms and fears that are conjured up in us, making us forsake him.  And we have to be freed from so many idols and false gods that enslave us.

Do we adore in Jesus the Mystery of the living God, made flesh in our midst?  It is not enough to confess his divinity using abstract formulas, removed from life and incapable of touching the hearts of today’s men and women.  We have to discover in his actions and words the God who is friendly to life and to human beings.  Isn’t he the best news we can communicate to those who are in search of ways to meet him?

Do we believe in the love preached by Jesus?  It is not enough to repeat time and again his command.  We have to keep alive always his restless pursuit of a world where we live as brothers and sisters, fostering a loving solidarity with the needy and creative love toward them.  What would happen if one day the power of love moved the heart of religions and the initiatives of peoples?

Have we heeded Jesus’ command to go out to the world to heal?  It is not enough to preach his miracles.  Today too we have to cure life as he used to do, relieving suffering, giving back dignity to those who are wandering, healing wounds, welcoming sinners, reaching out to the excluded.  Where are his deeds and words of encouragement for the defeated?

If Jesus had fiery words of condemnation for the injustice of the powerful of his time and the lie of the Temple religion, why don’t we his followers rise up in the face of the daily destruction of thousands of human beings brought down by hunger, malnutrition and our forgetfulness?

José Antonio Pagola

June 23, 2013
12 Ordinary Time (C)
Luke 9, 18-24