Daily Reflections ...

It is reasonable to expect that the disciples would have a deeper idea of who Jesus was, compared to others in the community. There are two factors that inform Peter’s understanding of who Jesus is, firstly a revelation from God ‘for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven’ (v.17) and secondly, his closeness and familiarity with Jesus.

Peter’s faith, like ours, is a gift, a revelation from God. His belief in Jesus has been revealed from above. Faith in God is the rock on which the Church was built. Peter’s profession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah opens a door of the revelation of this faith to the world. Closeness and familiarity with Jesus is what sustains this faith during our lives when our faith can grow, develop or sometimes, get stuck or become seemingly irrelevant.

Pope Francis (Morning Meditation 28 February 2014) reminds us that ‘In order to know Jesus, what is needed is not a study of notions but rather a life as a disciple. In journeying with Jesus we learn who he is … we come to know Jesus as disciples. We come to know him in the daily encounter with the Lord, each day, through our victories and through our weaknesses. It is precisely through these encounters that we draw close to him and come to know him more deeply. For it is in these everyday encounters that we acquire what St Paul calls the mind of Christ’.

Let us ask the Father to grant us a deeper knowledge of Christ, and let us ask the Holy Spirit to explain to us this mystery.

by Melinda Zakikhani