Experiencing Christ!

Thursday, August 8, 2024

Jer 31:31-34; Mt 16:13-23

Today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on our Christ experience.

Jesus asks a very important question about his identity. Apparently, it is a question seeking information about himself. However, the truth is that Jesus does not want mere information but an experiential confession. 

The names of John the Baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah suggest that Jesus was respected as one of the prophets of Israel.

However, that is not all. There is something beyond these allusions. 

That is when Jesus’ question gets very personal. In his freedom, Jesus turns the question into something personal because he has trained his apostles and disciples through example and preaching. Jesus presumes that the manifold occasions on which he healed and cured people would act as background information for his followers to discern his real identity. 

Hence, Jesus’ question was beyond the realm of information. It prodded them to examine their learning, living, and relationship with Jesus and come up with a response that would convince Jesus of the depth of their experience with him. 

That is what Jesus looked for, and Peter succeeded in confessing the real identity of Christ. 

Though such revelation was given to Peter by God, we cannot overlook the fact that Peter made himself worthy of such Divine Revelation. 

Peter had his own shortcomings. However, they never affected the depth at which he understood Jesus and experienced his identity. 

This is why his confession becomes the rock of the foundation for the Church, and he himself is made her head after Christ. 

Let us pray that God’s grace will help us toward a profound experience of Christ. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar