August 8, 2024 - Thursday of the 18th week, even-numbered year
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Matthew 16:13-23
Homily
Peter, having witnessed Jesus’ teaching and several healings performed by him, easily proclaims in response to Jesus’ question about his identity: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ But as soon as Jesus wanted to announce his passion and death, Peter would have none of it: ‘God forbid, Lord! No, this will not happen to you! Peter was probably thinking as much about his own safety as Jesus'. It is pleasant to follow a miracle-working Messiah. It is less so to follow a prophet condemned to death.
In the Gospel we have just heard, Jesus asks his disciples : ‘And you, what do you say? Who do you think I am? Beyond the distance of time and space, Jesus is asking us today the same question: ‘ Who do you think I am?
For a long time, the question ‘ Who is Jesus? probably remained a rather theoretical one for each of us... until the day when, for reasons specific to each of us, we were forced to ask ourselves about the ultimate meaning of our own human existence.
The Word of God became one of us. He died, but the Father raised him from the dead. This man in whom the fullness of the divinity resides now transcends space and time in his humanity. He is present at all times, in all places, in each one of us, and he reveals to us all the ultimate possibilities of our human existence.
This is why the answer to the question ‘ Who is Jesus? becomes the answer to the other question: “ What is a human being? ”, or more directly: “ Who am I?” or ’ What am I destined for in God's plans?
By revealing who he is, Jesus reveals who we are, or rather what we are called to be. Faith in ourselves - faith in our worth in God's eyes, whatever our sins - is inseparable from our faith in Jesus. This faith in ourselves is obviously something quite different from simple ‘self-confidence’, which is often born of a lack of self-knowledge.
Finally, we must not forget that Jesus reveals himself most fully to his disciples in the Gospel, when he tells them of his passion and death. He thus reveals to us the demands of the human adventure. The need for detachment, for a gradual death to everything that keeps us attached to what is limited -- the need to do away with all the barriers that keep us prisoners, if only of a way of thinking or even of a certain image of God.
*** We celebrate today the memory of Saint Dominic.
Armand Veilleux