In today’s gospel, we hear Jesus asking His disciples the most important question regarding their relationship with Him. As what He was about to ask them was a very important question, Jesus took His disciples to a remote place where they could be by themselves away from any destructions. The first question seems to be a kind of preparation for the second and most important one. What others think and say about Jesus is not that much important to them. But what they think and say about Him determines their relationship with Him.

Jesus asks us the same question today through His words in the Scriptures and the teaching of His Church. Our collective response as members of the Church has been proclaimed for ages through the Creed we profess so proudly at our Liturgies. Personally speaking, now the true question is, ‘Who is Jesus to you and me on personal terms?’ Keeping in mind what we profess in our Creed, Who is He to us in our day to day life? Do our lives reflect that He truly is the Son of God, the Christ (the Messiah) and the Lord of our lives?

It was only after that incident at Caesarea Philippi, that Jesus begun to speak openly to His disciples about His suffering on the cross. His Lordship has never been separated from His suffering on the cross and it is only through sharing at His suffering that His disciples could follow Him properly. Peter thought he was doing favours to Jesus by trying to persuade Him to take a shorter and painless way to glory only to be rebuked so strongly by Jesus. In the Lord’s plan for our salvation, suffering and the cross take a crucial place. If we want to follow Him as His true disciples, there is no other way apart from the way Jesus Himself took. He says to us, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.’ (Mk 8:34)


With prayers - Fr Richard, Fr Ephrem and all the parish team
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