Thursday August 8th: Understanding who Jesus is

“You are the Christ….”

Matthew 16:12-23

The Gospel passage starts by saying ‘Then they understood what He was telling them’.  Jesus talks to us in Mass, in our personal prayer time, in the beautiful face of Nature all around us and in every person we meet, but do we really understand?  Who do you say Jesus is?

The passage says that when Jesus’ identity became clear to Peter and he said, ‘You are the Christ’, Jesus called Peter a ‘happy man.’  When we allow ourselves to understand, to see who Jesus is in our lives and to reveal Himself to us, that will bring us happiness too.  Jesus would then commission us as he did Peter, give us authority and protect us from evil, just as he did with Peter. Without this openness to Jesus, we become an obstacle in God’s path.

Let us step out of the way and try to see who Jesus is so that we too can say You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!