Who do you say that I am?

I’m sure that we’ve all experienced times in our lives when we have had questions for God. Perhaps we’ve been unsure about a decision we had to make, perhaps we found ourselves in a difficult situation, perhaps we were questioning how God was working in our lives. In today’s Gospel, Jesus has a question for us. He asks us, “Who do you say that I am?” (Luke 9: 20). This simple question has echoed throughout time, falling first on the ears of the disciples who were with him, and still today, weighing on our hearts. On the surface, it seems like a fairly straightforward question. If your mother or uncle or best friend or co-worker asked you this question, the answer would seem logical. But Jesus wants us to dig a little deeper.

Earlier in the Gospel reading, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” (Luke 9: 18). Surely, as Jesus is fully God, in His omniscience, He knows exactly what others are saying about Him. He knows what the scribes and Pharisees whisper about Him, He knows what the leaders and rulers of the time think. He also knows that His own disciples hear these things, and He knows what is on their minds, yet He presses them saying, “Who do you say that I am?” It is Peter who is quick to respond, saying, “The Christ of God” (Luke 9: 20). Yet the disciples do not fully understand the weight of these words. Peter is correct; Jesus is Christ, He is the Son of the Father, the Lamb of God, the Word made Flesh, the Savior sent to redeem all of humanity, but even those closest to Jesus on earth, His disciples, cannot grasp the enormity of the sacrifice that Jesus will make. Jesus warns them that He must suffer, be rejected, and even face death, but the sacrifice of the Cross is something that we continue to marvel at today.

Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross is one that transcends time and space. He offered His life in a selfless, total, and generous way. He died so that all of humanity could have new life. As St. Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, “He loved me, and delivered Himself for me” (Gal 2:20). Indeed, Jesus loves us as individuals and died for each, unique person. Fr. M. Eugene Boylan points out in his book, This Tremendous Lover, “Our Lord would have undergone all His passion for any one of us, and each of us was present to His mind just as clearly and as significantly as if there were no one else to redeem.” Jesus extends Himself completely to us through this amazing sacrifice of the Cross which continues today in each and every sacrifice of the Mass. He calls us to unite our hearts with His and to join in this sacrifice.

The road that Jesus calls us to journey on may not always be easy- He shares with the disciples in today’s Gospel, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9: 23-24). In order that we may share more perfectly in the life of Christ and the eternal joy that God is calling us to, we must also unite with Him in His sacrifice. Life’s crosses take many forms, from difficult situations or people, to illnesses and injuries, to temptations and vices. We each will struggle with different things throughout our lives, but we are not alone in carrying the burden of these crosses. We can do all things through the Lord, our strength and our salvation. As the Gospel acclamation today proclaims, “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). The call of the Lord is written in our hearts, we only need to listen to hear His voice, and He will help guide us through any cross we might bear. This week, let us be more attentive to hearing the call of Christ. Who do you say that He is? What crosses are you being asked to shoulder?