Today's Gospel

Learn from the Greatest Teacher

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the gospel together, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us toward a word, a phrase, or an idea that can enrich us and focus us for the day. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew 16:13-19. When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" And he said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the great prophets." And he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

So we hear this reading again today. We heard it a couple of days ago in the Gospel of Mark, and today we hear it in Matthew. And a little bit different because we also get the part of the reading where Jesus creates the first pope, where Jesus says, "Peter, you're going to be the rock. I'm going to build my church on you." And it's a very powerful moment. And of course, right before that, Jesus is saying, "Who do people say that I am?" I have always found this sort of to be like a humorous reading for some reason. Maybe it's just my sick mind, but because I just have this picture of the disciples and Jesus, and Jesus saying to the disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And I'm saying, "Well, some say you're John the Baptist, some say you're Elijah, some say you're Jeremiah, some say you're one of the great prophets." And then Jesus is like, "Who do you say that I am?" And from some sort of humorous point of view, it's almost like, "Well, hold on, Jesus. It sounds like you're confused about who you are." It's like, "Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am? Who am I?" Is Jesus having some sort of identity crisis? And of course, the answer is no. He isn't. But like all great teachers, he's asking questions to get a sense of, okay, where are the students at? Who do people say that I am? What's the word out there? And you know they've got a variety of answers. And then Jesus says, "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter, he nails it. Boom. And so Jesus gets a sense of, "Okay, Peter knows who I am. The wider public, they're still confused about who I am." And that allows him to realize, "Okay, they're not clear." Just like a teacher with a class, right? You have some students, they're nailing it. You've got other students. You can tell they don't quite understand it. They might be guessing the answer. And they guess the answer, and it's right, but you see the uncertainty in their face, and you ask them, "Okay, how did you get the answer?" And they can't really explain how they got the answer. So then you know they guessed the answer.

And that's what teachers do, is they ask questions to see where the students are at so they can help the students along. Jesus is a great teacher. It's amazing how many questions are in the scriptures. It's amazing how many questions Jesus asks. And we see this in all great teachers. We saw it in Socrates. We saw it in Aristotle. We saw it in Aquinas. We saw it in Augustus. And great teachers ask questions because questions force us to personalize the message. They force us to make it our own. And so that's the question Jesus is asking today. But I think the bigger takeaway is, what question is Jesus asking you today? He's asking me a question. It's different to the question he's asking you. It's different to the question he's asking your friends, your family. What question is Jesus asking you today? And have we taken a few minutes, or do we plan to take a few minutes, to listen to the voice of God in our lives and see what he's trying to say to us? Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

I hope you're enjoying the daily gospel reflections. So one of the things I love doing, spending this time with you each day. Recently, I released a book called 33 Days to Divine Mercy. If you haven't had a chance to check that out yet, I encourage you to do that today.