Qua bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta thử hỏi, nếu Chúa Giêsu cũng hỏi chúng cùng một câu hỏi “còn các con, các bảo Thầy là ai?”, có lẽ chúng ta sẽ trả lời: “Thầy là Đức Chúa Trời, là Đức Chúa Con, là Ngôi Lời nhập thể làm người, là Đấng Tạo Hóa và Đấng Cứu Thế của chúng con, là Con một của Chúa Cha, là Chúa Đức Kitô, và là Thiên Chúa thật cũng là người thật ”. Không giống như các tông đồ trong thời của Chúa, bổn phận chính của chúng ta bây giờ là phải rao truyền tất cả những điều ấy tới tất cả mọi người để họ cùng nhận biết Chúa. Các tông đồ đã không chắc chắn Chúa Giêsu là ai. Họ biết được Ngài là ai, là Đấng nào sau khi chứng kiến cái chết và sự phục sinh của Người. Tất cả các tông đồ, trừ Thánh Gioan đã chết một cái chết vì đạo như Chúa Giêsu.
Bây giờ chúng ta thực sự đã biết Chúa Giêsu là ai. Cuộc sống, cái chết và sự sống lại của Ngài đã chứng minh cho chúng ta. Chúng ta được chúc phúc vì Thiên Chúa đã ban cho chúng ta những ân sủng để chúng ta biết điều này. Chúng ta cẩn phải nhận ra tầm quan trọng về những kiến thức này cho chúng ta; sự sống đời đời của chúng ta đều phụ thuộc vào những kiến thức đấy.
Chúng ta phải biết rằng "từ nguyên thuỷ (khởi đầu) đã có Ngôi Lời, Ngôi Lời ở trong Thiên Chúa, và Ngôi Lời là Thiên Chúa;. Ngài đã ở cùng Thiên Chúa. Và qua Ngài mà tất cả mọi sự đã được thực hiện và Mọi sự đã nhờ Ngài mà thành sự và không Ngài thì không gì đã thành sự." (Ga 1: 1-3)
Dự định ban đầu của Thiên Chúa là ban sự sống đời đời cho con người chúng ta , nhưng vì sự bất tuân và niềm tự hào của con người, của tổ phụ con người cúng ta là Adong và Eva mà cúng ta đã đánh mất cái quyền lợi đấy. Vì vậy, để cứu rỗi cho chúng ta, Ngôi Lời đã trở nên Con Người phàm tục như chúng ta và Ngài đã sống giữa chúng ta, để chuộc lại cho chúng ta sự sống đời đời mà đã bị mất.
Chúng ta biết rằng Chúa Kitô đã chịu đau khổ và chịu chết trên thập giá cho chúng ta để chúng ta đạt được ơn cứu chuộc này. Chúng ta phải rao truyền tất cả những gì mà chúng ta đã biết được cho tất cả mọi người để họ sẽ không bị từ chối cuộc sống vĩnh cửu mà Đức Chúa Giêsu Kitô đã cứu chuộc cho chúng ta.
Today's Catholics, if asked the same question by Jesus, would probably answer: "God, God the Son, Our Creator, Our Lord and Savior, Our Redeemer, the Word Made Flesh, the Only Begotten Son of the Father, the son of Mary, the Christ, true God and true Man" - for all these, he truly is. Unlike the apostles of his time, our strict instruction now is to tell this to everyone.
The apostles were not sure who Jesus was. They learned who he was only much later, after witnessing his death and resurrection, and they proclaimed who Jesus was to all the nations so that they would be saved, even at the cost of their own lives. All the apostles, except St. John, died a martyr's death. Now we know who Jesus really is. His life, death and resurrection proved this to us. We are blessed because God gave us the grace to know this. We must realize how important this knowledge is to us; our eternal life depends on it. We know that " in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; he was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him nothing came to be." (Jn 1:1-3) God originally intended eternal life to our first parents, but because of disobedience and pride, they lost it. So for our salvation, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, in order to redeem for us the eternal life which was lost. We know that he suffered and died on the cross for us in order to achieve this redemption. We must tell what we know to everyone so that they would not reject this eternal life redeemed for us by Jesus Christ.
Friday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” Luke 9:18
It’s interesting that Jesus was both “praying in solitude” and that “the disciples were with him.” Saint Bede explains this apparent contradiction by stating that “the Son alone is able to penetrate the incomprehensible secrets of the Father’s will.” Therefore, our Lord was always alone with the Father in the sense that only Jesus knew the Father fully and intimately. This is because He is the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Eternal Son of the Father.
With that fact clearly understood, it’s also important to understand that as Jesus prayed to the Father within His human nature, something new took place. Though Jesus was eternally with the Father, His human nature was not eternally with the Father. Therefore, as the Eternal Son of God communed with the Eternal Father while living in human flesh, human nature was suddenly elevated to a height that it had never been before. Not only was the Eternal Son living in perfect union with the Father, but now the Eternal Son, fully human, brought His human nature into this oneness.
Though this may seem a bit philosophical to some, it points to a very important reality that affects us all. Through our Lord’s human prayer to the Father, we are all invited to join with Jesus and share in this divine oneness. The Son of God, as a human being, made it possible for us as humans to share in the elevation of our very lives to oneness with God the Father. And though the Son of God will always retain a unique union with the Father, we are, nonetheless, by participation, invited to share in their life.
So why is this important? One reason is that there is no greater human fulfillment we could ever achieve than to share in the prayer of the Son to the Father. Throughout our lives, we are constantly looking for fulfillment in one form or another. We want to be happy. We want enjoyment in life. We have a natural desire for happiness that we are constantly seeking to fulfill. What’s important to understand is that the greatest happiness comes by sharing in the deep human prayer of the Son to the Father. Prayer, true prayer, is the answer to our deepest desire.
Reflect, today, upon whether or not you regularly engage in deep prayer. Can you point to times when you, like our Lord, were alone with God, communing with Him in the depths of your human soul, being drawn to Him through prayer? There are many levels of prayer, as is attested to by many saints. Make the choice to deepen your prayer. Go before our Lord today and pour out your heart to Him, asking Him to draw you into the holy solitude of His prayer to the Father. Doing so will bring forth in you the deepest human satisfaction possible in life.
My praying Lord, as You spent time alone with the Father, You united Your human nature with Him, thus elevating our nature to a glorious degree. Please draw me to You, dear Lord, so that I may know You and the Father through true, deep and sustaining prayer. May this oneness with You be the cause of my deepest fulfillment in life. Jesus, I trust in You.
1. Who Has Authority over Life and Death? The author of the Book of Ecclesiastes, known as Qoheleth or the Preacher, contemplates the question of the meaning of life. He ponders why human beings toil endlessly on earth for minimal gain. When a person dies the fruits of their labor merely pass to another. The Preacher teaches that the pleasures of the world do not truly fulfill us and that wealth does not bring us ultimate satisfaction. The Preacher also notes that we have no control over the timing of the end of our earthly life. “Unlike God, who appoints times of prosperity and adversity (7:14), man has no ‘authority over the day of death’ (8:8). The best he can do, says Qoheleth, is to enjoy the good things in life as much as his circumstances allow (2:24; 3:12, 22; 8:15)” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, 66).
2. God’s Plan for Creation: Qoheleth sees God as the Creator who determines all times and seasons of life (3:1-8). God's creation is beautiful and good, and, in this creation, man has a special place, for man desires something that goes beyond this life. God has placed this desire for eternity in man’s heart. No creature can satisfy us; only God can: The Lord has made us for himself and our hearts are restless until they rest in him. The gift of the desire for eternity does not include with it the gift of fully understanding God’s plan for each one of us. The latter is something that we discern little by little through the virtue of faith and the gifts of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. In this life, we really only catch a glimpse of God’s plan for creation; in the next life, we will see everything in God himself. We will see his goodness, justice, love, and mercy. We will see how he has acted in history and our lives.
3. Faith in Jesus as the Christ: In the Gospel, Simon Peter does not come to the knowledge of Jesus as the Christ on his own. It was revealed to him by God. Peter’s confession of faith is an important step in understanding God’s plan for humankind. Peter is confessing that God the Father has sent his only begotten Son as the Redeemer of man. At the same time, Peter will struggle to understand that Jesus redeems us through the Cross, through suffering, through death. After the Resurrection, Peter will confess not only his faith in Jesus but also his love for Jesus. One day, he will testify to Christ through his martyrdom in Rome. He will tell the entire world through his death that Jesus is the Christ, the one who saves us and raises us up.
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. You were slain, yet rose victorious and have been enthroned at the right hand of the Father. Help me to live my baptismal vocation as a priest, prophet, and king today.
Opening Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I am grateful for this opportunity to come before you in prayer. You know that I believe in you; that is why I am coming to you. However, you also know how much my faith needs to grow. I ask you for that grace to grow in my knowledge of you, to think more like you, and to trust you each day more. I also ask you to bless those souls entrusted to my prayer.
“Who Do the Crowds Say That I Am?”: Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.” Jesus’s first question was safe; it is a question about the beliefs of others. “Well, they believe this and that…” said the disciples, possibly even slightly scoffing at some of the theories out there. Similarly, today’s society is completely at ease conversing about religion at this level. “Well, the Buddhists believe this… and the Muslims believe that.” University professors who teach courses on religion or philosophy often take a similar approach—they survey the landscape of the various religions or philosophies, make a few interesting comments, and then leave it to the student to choose which they like best. The underlying message conveyed is that we cannot know the truth about God and man. That aversion is likely rooted not only in a belief that man cannot know the truth but also in a fear of commitment. A religion reduced to a theory can make no demands.
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