Gospel

Matthew 16:13-19

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi

he asked his disciples,

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,

still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter said in reply,

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

And so I say to you, you are Peter,

and upon this rock I will build my Church,

and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;

and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Reflection

Throughout this week we've been listening, especially in Mark's Gospel, the difficulty people had in understanding who Jesus is. And they didn't read the signs properly. They didn't ask the right questions. But here we see the most amazing, simple answer to this dilemma of human beings not being able to recognize the Christ. It has to be revealed to you.

It has to be given to you. It's the image of faith. Faith is not something that you do and earn something through that. But faith is a gift you receive and surrender to. Take a few moments to reflect upon these images, and then I will close with the prayer.

Closing Prayer

Father, no matter how long we work to study something like scripture and try to interpret it over and over again, what we are really doing by reading these stories is not getting the clear answers that we want. But learning about a story of a God who slowly revealed the truth to his people. And it was his gift to them. It was the gift of the Holy Spirit to them that changed them. We pray for this gift. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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