The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
Matthew’s Gospel illustrates this scene at Caesarea Philippi in which Jesus asks his disciples a curious question. He wants to know what the crowds think, how they are responding to him. More importantly, Jesus wants to know what his disciples think. "Who do you say that I am?"
Throughout Salvation History, God has formed the hearts of his people and gradually revealed his identity so they could even begin to respond to this question. In the times of the Old Testament, God revealed that he was One and that he desired to enter into a covenant of love with his children. In the New Testament era, we see Jesus revealing that God is one communion of three Persons, a Trinity. Jesus suffers and dies, rises from the dead, and sends the Holy Spirit so that we can have access to the life and the love of God. God reveals all of these things so that we might know who he is. He cares what we think.
So… who do you say that I am?
Jesus poses this question because he cares what they think — not for the sake of a "right answer," but in order to move their hearts. Jesus uses the power of dialogue and encounter — encounter with the Word — to call forth a response from the people he came to save! Of course, they know who he is — they were formed by him. Their hearts still ache for him. They desire his love and forgiveness and healing more than they could ever hope to put into words. They want his friendship and his attention and his peace.
The question of Christ invites the disciples to call to mind the action of God. Who is he? Well, what has he done in my life? In what ways has he acted? What has he said and promised to me? How has he healed me? Where do I see him working miracles right now? It wasn't a trick question. They knew him. They had encountered him.
When we are silent enough to allow Jesus to speak powerful and significant questions to our hearts, we discover that he is revealing himself to us in the very questions he speaks, and revealing to us our identity as men and women who have access to the very life of God.
Jesus cares what we think because he wants us to know him, and through that lens, know ourselves and each other.
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, who recognized the Son of God in your midst, pray for us.
Fr. Dennis Strach, C.S.C., is the Associate Director of Vocations for the Congregation of Holy Cross in the United States and serves as the Priest-in-Residence in Knott Hall at the University of Notre Dame. You can find him on Instagram.