The Key Question

When I think about it, this may well be my favorite gospel reading in the entire Bible. There’s a lot of important pieces of our faith right here. Apostolic succession, forgiveness of sins, papal infallibility – it’s allin there! Heavy, important stuff, central to our Catholic faith. And then we have the capstone – Christ’s exchange with Peter: “But who do you say that I am?” “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against it.” Pope Francis has called Peter’s confession “the Creed” of our faith. No question, the exchange between Peter and Jesus is probably the cornerstone of our Church, our faith, and our whole Christian tradition.

But what draws me back to this passage again and again isn’t Peter’s confessionbut Christ’s QUESTION itself. “BUT WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?” As Catholics, as Christians, we think we’ve got the right answer. We’ve heard it all our lives. “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” But deep down, maybe that makes us just like the disciples, giving the answer others gave to them. Make no mistake – the shared tenets of faith are important. But when you come to Jesus in prayer and it’s just you and Him, that’s not good enough. “Oh, no, no,” he’ll tell you. “That’s what THEY say. But who do YOU say that I am?” And that, my brothers and sisters, is truly the key question of our faith. Deep down, it’s not about our collective relationship with Jesus as a Church, this beautiful faith we profess. It’s about YOUR relationship, MY relationship, and each one of us standing before Christ all on our own.

That can be a little scary. As Christians and as Catholics, we all thinkwe want closer communion with God, a more personal relationship, to see God more clearly. And deep down, we do. As St. Augustine wrote in his “Confessions”: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” But too often we forget that seeing God face to face means being seen as well. And suddenly, maybe we’re not so ready to open up to Christ in prayer, to pursue that intimate relationship he so desperately longs for. And maybe we hide a bit from Christ.

But here’s the thing. It’s NOT something we can avoid. Every choice we make, every decision we face in our lives, is in fact a meeting face-to-face with Jesus Christ. And every one of those choices we make is our answer to his question to us: “NOW – in this very moment – who do you say that I am? Your Lord// or your servant? Whose will be done – mine // or yours?”And how we answer, each and every time, determines who we truly are, and who we want to be. It’s not about the words we speak or the Profession of Faith we make on Sunday. It’s about the decisions we make, the actions we take, and who we strive to become each and every day.

So what to do? St. Ambrose, one of the Doctors of the Church, put it this way: “Strive that you too may be a rock. But …do not seek outside yourself, but inside yourself for the rock. Your rock is your actions. Your rock is your thought. On this rock your house is built, so that it may not be battered by any storm of the spirits of evil.” Too often, though, we feel a little less than solid in our faith – more like sand or mud than rock. And that’s probably okay, even if it is a bit discouraging.

Think about Peter, “the rock on which Christ chose to build His Church,” the Peter of the Gospels. The same Peter who denied Christ three times the night before the crucifixion. The same Peter who hid in the upper room on Easter for fear of the Jews. Sounds a lot more like shifting sand than solid rock. But he’s the same Peter we know from the Acts of the Apostles – preaching to large multitudes on Pentecost, healing outside the Temple, fearlessly confronting the Sanhedrin, and leading thousands to the Church through baptism and conversion – the Peter who would become our first Pope. Christ called Peter to become the rock of the Church not because of who he was, his human strengths and courage, but of who he could become with the Holy Spirit burning within him.

And so it is with us. Even today, Jesus asks his disciples – each one of us – again and again, “But who do you say that I am?” So what do we answer? Not with our mind or our words, but in our heart and our life. It’s the question we need to embrace and pray over each and every day. Let us pray that he grants us the grace to respond with a sincere heart, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” For if the Lord finds in our hearts a sincere, genuine faith, alive in the Holy Spirit, may he also see in us the living stones on which to continue building His Church.