+ Our message for today is short and to the point: Christ Jesus is God; and as he had to suffer much, and even die to fully attain this position, so, if we want to be his followers and recipients of a share in the new life he attained – then we too must suffer much, and even one day die!
In the gospel passage today Jesus separates out two levels of understanding of himself: the one circulating among the people (John the Baptist back from the dead, or a dead prophet from the past like Elijah); the other, the one hopefully different, emanating from his own chosen band of Apostles, who by this time should have gotten to know him a little better. Peter – inspired by the Holy Spirit of Truth – blurts out: YOU ARE THE CHRIST OF GOD! Peter could never have come up with this on his own, or any of the rest of the Twelve.
The Spirit teaches us something extremely profound and important here: in fact the most central fact of the Incarnation: JESUS, THE CHRIST (the Anointed One) IS GOD! Belief in this fact
is the hinge on which the salvation of the world swings. CHRIST IS GOD – the first-fruit of the likes of all of us – who, by faith in this fact and baptism (as our second reading tells us today) – become children of God in Christ Jesus and an heir to the promise God made to Abraham of mercy, grace and salvation! The first reading today from the Prophet Zechariah foretells that it would be from the pierced heart of Christ that salvation and the sacramental life of the Church would flow beginning with the moment of his death on the Cross: and among the sacraments Baptism is the first and most important. Becoming a child of God and a member of Christ is meant to make all the difference in our lives and the lives of all in the world.
People in the world are thirsting, thirsting, thirsting after something deep, primordial and satisfying: the only thing that can possibly satisfy that thirst is to drink of the spring of life welling up from the pierced side of Christ. This is not just religious poetry and rhetoric: this is fact, plain and simple. Only God himself can fill up what he made, knows and understands - and can see is so broken and anguished by the sin of Adam, and personal sin. It is up to us to witness to the fact that incorporation into Christ and the voluntary placement of ourselves underneath the streams of grace flowing from His Most Precious and Sacred Heart – is the sure way to peace and joy that will have no end.
Part of our witness is that we demonstrate that the attainment of such peace and joy can only come, as Jesus himself told us and modeled after much cross-carrying, suffering, and eventually death! But we rejoice in this process because all of our red crosses will be turned into gold crosses of victory! Jesus promised – and he always keeps his promises!
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
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