From the responsorial psalm: “LORD, what is man, that you notice him; the son of man, that you take thought of him? Man is like a breath; his days, like a passing shadow. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 9:18-22)
Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.” He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. He said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
Just as Herod heard all the commotion about Jesus and wondered who he was, Jesus questions the disciples about who people say that he is. They say nearly the same that Herod said—John the Baptist, Elijah, an ancient prophet who has arisen. But then Jesus asks Peter—an everyman, one of us—in a way that is meant to be heard deep in our hearts: “But who do you say that I am?” When Peter answers that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus warns them sternly not to tell anyone. The Son of God, the I AM come down to earth asks anybody and everybody the same question: “Who do you say that I am?”
God, help me see Jesus as Peter sees him. While in prayer, Jesus asks the disciples who people say that he is. After Peter answers him, Jesus lays out the whole plan of salvation—that he would willingly endure his passion, be killed, and raised on the third day. The disciples are perplexed at this. Your ways, Lord, are not my ways and I also fail to understand. Give me the grace to trust in your providential care, as the first reading expresses: “He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without man’s ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.” Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.