26 August 2023 – 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

Jesus puts this question to each and every one of us and asks:

Who do you say I am?

And as we ponder this question, it takes us to a deeper realisation of who we are and reveals our identity to us. As I was sitting with this scripture text, one of the memories that came back to me was the time when I joined the seminary. As I joined the seminary and we usually have these days of recollections and retreat, and during that time, this question will be asked again and again and again.

And sometimes at some moments in my life, I realised that this question was not something to be answered just at that moment and after answering that question, you know everything about God. But gradually when you answer the question again and again and again, it reveals to you who you are before God. And when you are able to acknowledge who you are before God, then it gives you that opportunity to realise of your own identity, how you are loved and from there, it gives you a whole compass to set your direction forward.

So as we look at the disciples today, dear friends, when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Phillipi, he put this question before his disciples: “Who do you say I am?” And as we look at our own journey of life, sometimes when we get up in the morning, we are so energized in what we want to do, we want to go out and conquer the world, we want to do whatever it is to make us joyful, to make us happy. But at times we come to this realisation that we get up in the morning feeling “Well it’s another day.” Well, we have to go through these obstacles and these challenges.

So you ask this once again, whether are we living this life with full enthusiasm, with full of excitement or are you living this life just by going through the motions? And very often in my seminarian formation, I have been in that situation where there has been so much of disillusionment, so much of challenges, so much of things that I was not certain but when we answer this question again and again, God reveals Himself to you. God reveals of Himself, of who He is and who you are before God, a sinner who is in need of God’s love, a sinner who is in need of God’s mercy.

And when we are able to acknowledge that that identity that we are loved by God, then the decisions that we make, the choices we make re-orientates our whole direction of life. And I am sure sometimes we are like Simon Peter that we are able to get things right, that “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But at times we do fail. At times we also find ourselves being an obstacle to the work of God in our lives.

So again, we are called to ask this question again: Who do you say I am?

And as church, dear friends, last week we had the Pastoral Assembly where we came together, about 150 people came together to ask the same question again. Because as we set the directions of where we want to go, we need to ask ourselves where we are. And after the whole session that was animated by Fr Simon Labrooy and Monseigneur Jude, we came to three words:-
1. Unity – that we want to grow in unity as a parish.
2. We want to grow as a community that cares.
3. We want to grow as a community that is inclusive.

So as we look at these three words, dear friends, we must come to a deeper realization of what we are called to so as church, what we are called to do as a community. Because if we are able to listen to that promptings of God in our lives, we are able to listen to where the spirit is leading us, then we have that firm foundation or that experiences that God has given to us, looking forward in the eyes of faith. And that gives us the authority. That our experiences is founded on Christ, our experiences that we come together to experience as church is one that God gives us.

And sometimes, dear friends, as we look at those experiences as I mentioned just now, when I ask this question again and again during my seminarian formation, and as we ask this question again at our Pastoral Assembly, Jesus assures us today in this Gospel: That you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.

Because what gives us a new opportunity to look forward, dear friends, is not what people say of our experiences but what God sees in our experiences. Because many of them said: He’s John the Baptist, some said Elijah, some said Jeremiah and other prophets. But when we are able to answer: Who do you say I am? with a personal encounter of Jesus where Jesus asks you, that gives us an authority from God to ground our experiences and to allow that experience that has been grounded in faith to set our way forward.

And once we set the way forward, Jesus says:

You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of the underworld will never hold out against it. I will give you keys to the kingdom of heaven.

And here when we are able to acknowledge that these experiences comes from God, it gives us a key towards a greater vision that God has for us. And when we are able to coin every experiences that comes from God by our own memories, by our own journaling, by our own way of recording those moments, we know where the Lord is leading us and guiding us. Because in every situations of life, dear friends, in every moment, God is present, but are we able to ground our experiences with the vision that God has for us? To go through our experiences of life through the eyes of faith, through the eyes of Jesus?

And when we are able to do that, whatever challenges, storms that comes along the way we are not disturbed. We are not shaken because our faith is built on rock and not on sandy soil.

So let us pray, dear friends, today as we come to receive the Eucharist that we may ask this same question again: Who do you say I am?

And when we allow ourselves to answer that question, with the vision that God has for us, the Lord continues to nourish us through the Eucharist so that we are able to be guided, so that we are able to be nourished with His word, nourished through the Eucharist and that we are strengthened where God leads us.

And as we move, taking this step forward in faith, we know that God walks together with us. That God goes before us in every circumstances and situations of life only if we allow Him to.

Let us pray for this grace to welcome Him into our hearts and to build our faith on a solid foundation which is the rock. The rock of our own experiences that leads us forward in faith.

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