Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Who Is Jesus?

“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus poses this question to his disciples in this Sunday’s gospel. Jesus poses the same question to each of us. Who is Jesus? Try answering the question 20 different times. What are the first responses? What do they become as you proceed?

My own images of Jesus have changed over the years. When I joined other women in answering the call to religious life 55 years ago, I know that I was responding to Jesus’ words “come follow me.” Thanks to my formators, I was led to exploring what that means. Our formation sessions were Scripture-based lessons describing who this Jesus is whom we follow. Long before it became a slogan on a rubber wrist band, I found myself often asking “What would Jesus do?”

Much of my formation as a person also came from all that was happening in the 60’s. It was a time of revolution, of murders of leaders who were working for change in systems, of the Catholic Church’s study of reforms needed in Church life. The Jesus who broke boundaries that excluded, who included women as persons of dignity and worth, who turned the tables on the rich and powerful became the one I follow.

Because Peter recognized Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he was given power and authority. Peter’s role in building the Church were keys to building the kingdom of God on earth—loving and forgiving, bringing about justice, and living compassion and mercy. As followers of Jesus, we too participate in the building of that kingdom on earth.

We pray this weekend that elected officials govern with fairness and respect, that pastoral leaders in the Church never fail to be agents of God’s mercy, that all of us take seriously our ministry to bring reconciliation to all broken relationships, and that those who have been abused and persecuted by others will find a way to be healed of such injustice. For this let us all work and pray.