Who Do You Say That I am?
Daily Readings - 9/23/2022 @ USCCB
Everything hinges on the question Jesus asks today. Our salvation can be described as being complete when we find ourselves in perfect communion with Christ. We call that a relationship, a union, whereby we know God and we love Him. Can we love Christ if we do not actually know Him?
Jesus asks this question - and how we answer it is important. Do we love God for who He really is? Or do we love some domesticated or hot-tempered God who enables our wrath or lust or pride and all the rest?
In order for us to even begin to ask this question of ourselves, we have to be open to a God who reveals Himself, and isn’t invented and created by our projections. God wants us to know his essence, to know His inner-life - to see His face. But the scary thing is, we may find ourselves putting the name-tag “Christ” on a golden calf.
If we want to ensure that we are following the True God, we must do as St. Ignatius of Loyola suggests, and submit our minds to a God who has infallibly revealed Himself, with the infallible interpreter (the Church). Both Scripture, Divine Tradition and the Universal Magisterium communicate to us who God is, and with an open heart, and not merely an intellectual inquisition, do we meditate, ponder, and treasure Who He is.
Might I suggest that the Father of the Son of God is asking us to Love His Son for who He really is. It is up to us to accept God’s truth about Himself, and to make it our own. If preferences run our lives, automatically - and that is our relationship with truth - we likely shouldn’t trust our version of who Christ is. If however we stand before God, wanting to let him tell us truth - the truth - then lets pick up our bibles and stay united to the Church. Its the only truth worthy of belief. Thank you St. Peter for getting the ball rolling.
Thank you, Father. As you said, everything hinges on this question. I remember the day, after over 30 years as an atheist, when I had to reexamine my answer to who I thought Jesus was. Admitting his divinity truly was a crossroads where the path determined life or death. I am so thankful that I was shown the path toward home.
Thank you, that does clarify things a great deal. I am still realing from the Pachemas being placed in Churches for worship and the garden scene in which Francis was present during which nuns and priests prostrated themselves to the ground in front of the statue of Parchema, and the Pope allowed it and neither said nor did anything. Plus he condemned the courageous young man who threw them into the river. He reminded me of Joshua who said, "as for me and my house we shall worship the Lord only", and also of the Maccabees. That young man's love for the Lord was heartening and breath taking!!!!