Who Do You Say That I Am?

06-29-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Albert

Today's Gospel Reading offers us one of the Most profound questions in all Scripture, asked by Jesus to his disciples:'' Who do you say that I am?'' This is a basic question that I believe all followers of Jesus must answer and not just once but at various times in our life: Who do we say that Jesus is? For us and for our World? Every person on this planet believes something about God. But it can vary a great deal.

Even we Christians can believe different things about the one God whom we all worship. Not only that but our understanding of God, our theology can change over our lifetime. In fact, it should change as we grow in our faith. But the reason why this question is so important. because how we answer this question directly affects how we live out our faith and how we live out our lives.

What we believe about God affects all sorts of other things, like how we pray. If we believe that God is distant and simply watching events unfold in our world with little participation or influence then we won't spend a lot of time asking God to change the circumstances in which we find ourselves. How we pray, in our words, depends very much on what we believe about God. But what we believe about God affects not only our prayer-life. It also affects how we face trials in our life. What we believe about God definitely affects how we navigate our way through different situations.

He first asked them a fairly easy question, '' Who do people say that I am?'' well, some say John the Baptist, they answered, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. It is a pretty easy question because they are just sharing what they hear, rather than what they believe. This won't be a difficult question for any of us to answer. But then Jesus asked his disciples the harder question, the most important question; '' Who do you say that I am ? The answer will set the course of your life. it matters more than anything else in the world.

St. Paul clarifies in the second reading that true freedom consists in our being confirmed to the likeness of Jesus Christ and in listening to the voice of God. St. Paul says '' Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh rather use it to serve one another through love''.