Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles - Cycle C

Matthew 16:13-19

“Simon Peter said in reply, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” (Matthew 16:16)

While praying with this passage a short time ago, I was struck by a prompt that asked the question of who we hope the Lord to be. I spent time feverishly writing down attributes of exactly who I thought I needed the Lord to be. Each item on the list was indeed admirable, worthy of praise, and a reflection of who the Lord is; but the Lord likes to break through our lists and reveal Himself to be so much more than the fragments of the good things we think we need. 

Peter, the apostle whose deeply relatable nature draws us to him again and again, doesn’t fall prey in this moment to stereotyping Jesus or trying to logically make sense of all He is–something I’m guessing we’ve all done before. And it’s not that Peter didn’t ever do that either. Peter undoubtedly longed for Jesus to meet his expectations, to be the chosen Messiah, to be exactly who he needed Him to be. The difference here is that the Lord gives Peter the grace to speak what was not of Peter. Peter had hopes for who Jesus was. Jesus gave the truth of who He is to Peter.  

Maybe our instinct is to add our own words to Peter’s statement. Perhaps we want to voice, “But, Jesus, you are also this and this and this.” Contained in Peter’s statement is the entirety of who Jesus is—something our feeble human hopes and desires couldn’t even scratch the surface of on our own. There doesn’t need to be any more said; everything else is revealed in that.  He is the Christ. He is the Son of the Living God, and in that, He is everything we ever hope for.  

We begin to understand Christ not through our own capacity, but because He graciously chooses to whisper his truth in the silence of our receptive hearts. And we know this with conviction: He is who He says He is. So if He says He heals the brokenhearted, He does. If He says He is the bread of life, He is. If He says He is the light of the world, He is. There is no room to wonder whether He’ll be all we need, whether He’ll be enough. He is. He has been. He always will be because He is the Christ.