School may be out but that doesn’t mean we are done with learning. The gospel today poses a question that matters on the final exam of life. “Who do you say that I am?” Imagine Jesus standing here and asking you that question. What answer would you give? Like the crowd, might you say, “John the Baptist,” because he constantly calls us to repentance? Might you say, “Elijah,” since he brings liberation to the poor and the oppressed? Or might your answer be more contemporary, calling him a bad cop who is out to get you; or a wimp who is out of touch with reality, or a fire extinguisher that you turn to in case of an emergency, or a good luck charm that wards off evil by means of magic. Peter was quick to reply, “The Christ of God,” but amongst the ancient Jews, there was no clear understanding of what that meant. Like many of his peers, Peter was hoping for a military leader who would raise an army, conquer the enemies of the Jews, and gain control of their native land. He believed God would use the Messiah to establish a kingdom where there would be no more war, injustice, or suffering. He gave the right answer but he was not on the same wavelength with Jesus.
Jesus did not reject the title, but his notion of Messiah was not what Peter had in mind. Predicting his passion, Jesus instead paints a picture of a Messiah who would be rejected, suffer and die that does not appear to be so triumphant. Nor does Jesus stop there. “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Of course, Jesus isn’t speaking literally. He would never expect us to carry a hefty beam of wood like he did, but how willing are we to suffer for the sake of the kingdom?
Paul’s letter speaks of baptism. When baptism is celebrated, the celebrant prays, “My dear child, the Christian community welcomes you with great joy. In its name I claim you for Christ our savior by the sign of his cross.” Following the baptism, the child is then clothed with a white garment while the celebrant prays, “You have become a new creation, and have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of our Christian dignity. With family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.” His prayer echoes the passage we heard from Paul: “…all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.”
So, like Peter, we could say that Jesus is the Christ of God, the Messiah, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, but Jesus is looking for more than an academic response from us. What matters more is, “Have we clothed ourselves in him?”
That was a question a wealthy father in Madrid, Spain, found himself wrestling with after he and his teenage son had a falling out that prompted his son to leave home. The father searched in vain for five months. In a last desperate attempt to find his son, he placed an ad in the local paper that read, “Paco, meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Signed, Papa.”
The following Saturday, the father went downtown to the newspaper office and found over 800 boys standing there, looking for love and forgiveness from their fathers.
Until he found his son, I wonder what this wealthy father must have thought about. Do you suppose he sat at home admiring his many treasures? I think not. His heart was broken, so most likely he spent much time soul searching and praying.
The experience was a wake up call for him, and hopefully for every father present as we celebrate Father’s Day, that their true treasures are their wives and children. They are worth more than any money, property, or power a father can obtain. Over the years as a priest, I have met fathers who have lost their children, some through death; others through drug or alcohol abuse, divorce, or bad decisions which ruined their relationships. Nearly every father said in looking back that they wished they had spent more time with their children when they were younger.
For those of us who are not fathers, I trust you get the idea. There are many treasures of much more value than the things we own and the things that own us. Jesus is calling on us to deny ourselves, that is, to not be so self-centered, and focus instead on the important relationships in our lives, including our relationship with God, which some of us take for granted.
Jesus knows first hand that life is difficult, but he also knows we can meet its many challenges with him at our side. We are most aware of his presence when we approach him not as a dead entity from the distant past whose memory lives on but as a living being who we can encounter through prayer. It was in the setting of prayer that Jesus posed the question of his identity, and it is in the setting of prayer that we can come to truly understand who he is, just as the apostles did.
Jesus urges us to deny ourselves and pick up our crosses with love each day. With Christ as our garment, we will grow in holiness. With Christ as our garment, we will reveal his presence in our lives to others by what we say and do. With Christ as our garment, we can do our share to bring about God’s kingdom by confronting the injustices and sufferings in our midst. Our task is not easy, but by changing our ways to be more like the ways of Christ, we can change our world into the kind of place God had in mind all along when he sent his son to be our Messiah.