Daily Gospel Reflection
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August 8, 2019
Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi
and 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.”
Then he strictly ordered his disciples
to tell no one that he was the Christ.
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
“God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
He turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
A few weeks ago, I began a formation program at Notre Dame called Echo. Echo offers its participants the opportunity to earn a Masters of Arts in Theology while serving in a parish or school in a partner diocese somewhere in the US. One aspect of the program is living intentionally with a community for two years. I was quite nervous to meet my community, fearing I might misrepresent the “real” me. I asked a few friends to write letters to my new community members. My question to these letter-writers was “who do you say that I am?” This was an answer that was important to get right.
Jesus uses the same question, but with a different end goal. He is unconcerned with the disciples articulating answers to a question. Rather, the God-man seeks to invite us into a mystery. Jesus isn’t afraid that the disciples will fall short of explaining who he is. He knows that no words can fully suffice. Nevertheless, the disciples sense the weight of Jesus’s question and respond with the names of other “sons of man”: “John the Baptist… Elijah… Jeremiah.” Rote memorization of important figures triumphs in the disciples’ minds.
But Peter, whose heart recognizes mysteries that his head can’t fathom, dives into Love’s ultimate mystery and responds: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Peter doesn’t bog himself down in fear of missing the right answer or in repetition’s rut. He speaks from the heart with an answer that could only be inspired by God. At least for a moment, Peter points us in the right direction. When Jesus asks us, “Who do you say that I am?” in the mundane and cacophonic realities of daily life, he doesn’t just want “the” right answer or a knee-jerk response. He is asking for a life-conforming commitment to God’s mysterious love – a love that flows from words into action.
Prayer
May the risen Christ help us to see through His eyes rather than with our limited vision. May we forgive as He forgave, call ourselves and others to transformative repentance, and give thanks for the graces that allow us to live His life here on earth. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Dominic is one of the brightest saints the faith has produced, and he changed the Church with his dedication to embodying holiness so as to authentically proclaim the truth.
Dominic was born in 1170 in Castile, Spain, and went to university to study to become a priest. After his ordination, he took a trip with his bishop through France where they met proponents of a heretical form of Christianity that was growing in popularity among the people. Believers in this heresy proposed two principles in the world—one good, one evil—and they believed that all physical matter was evil. Therefore, they rejected things of the body—they ate very little and had strict disciplines, which won the admiration of many people.
Dominic and his bishop began to counter this heresy through their preaching, but they had little credibility among the faithful because priests of the time lived a life of luxury and comforts. The strict lives of the heretics seemed heroic to the people.
Dominic’s answer was to establish an order of priests who would travel and preach against this heresy, living a simple life of prayer and intellectual study. The ideal for this community, the Order of Preachers, Dominic said, was “to pass on the fruits of contemplation” and to “speak only of God and with God.” Today, the Dominicans are present in 86 countries around the world.
While she was pregnant, Dominic’s mother had a vision that her son would light the world on fire like a hound running wild with a torch in its mouth.
The vision of Dominic’s mother came to fruition in the way he combined prayer and work. Prayer, Dominic knew, changes us, and thus, changes how we do our work. Our work, then, becomes an outflowing of our prayer, even when it seemingly has nothing to do with spiritual matters. When we live a life rooted in prayer, our actions communicate God’s presence in places used to cold and darkness. Prayer transforms us into a hound running wild with a torch in its mouth—we set the world on fire
St. Dominic’s relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and he is also depicted there in stained glass. One window shows him receiving the rosary from Mary—he is known to have spread the devotional prayer through his preaching. He is often depicted with a star above his head because at his baptism his mother saw a star shining from his chest. Thus, he is the patron saint of astonomers.
St. Dominic, who set the world on fire with prayer—pray for us!