There was much difference between what the people of Jesus’ time thought and spoke about Jesus and what Peter thought and spoke about Jesus. The same is today. There is much difference between what the people in general think and speak about Jesus today and what you and I very personally think and speak about Jesus. What Jesus means to me and to you, what kind of personal and intimate relationship we have with Jesus are deciding than thousands of opinions and documents about Jesus. There can be difference between what one teaches about Jesus and what it personally experience about Jesus. For many humans Jesus is a prophet, for some he is a visionary, for some others he is a moral teacher. What we experience about Jesus and what we preach and are convinced of him and what Jesus means to me is important for me. It is important how really Jesus is active in our lives?
Is Jesus the most important, significant, inseparable reality that has grown into us. Does Jesus live in us and work in us? Is its effect so strong that we are so influenced by it and that we cannot think or do anything differently than Jesus wishes? Peter experienced Jesus and he confesses his experience.
Exactly the same is with the message of Jesus. Jesus’ message about life, love and the gift of life are what he himself lived and practiced with conviction. The message of Jesus and the praxis of this message through his life are inseparable. His message is implicit in his life. His life is his message. His life, his person and his message are so closely connected that we can hardly separate them from each other. That’s why anyone who knows Jesus, knows his life, his message and his way of life and such a person will be naturally united to him.
There are difficult themes, expectations, hopes, demands or visions about life that we find in Jesus, many of which may be difficult for us to understand and practice. Self-denial as a prerequisite for discipleship and the announcement of suffering and death make Jesus’ message uninteresting. That’s why Peter said that something like this should never happen to him. But the announcement of the resurrection and eternal life, as well as the promise of the status of children of God, make the person of Jesus and the message of Jesus the highest experience we humans can have.
The promise to become one with God, and to enter into the love of God is the highest promise and highest expectation which one can give. Therefore, the cross entrusted to us is to bear. Emptying yourself in humility and loving God and your neighbors is the way of discipleship. Jesus and his message are the highest value of our life. We proclaim them, we experience them and we try to live it. To commit ourselves for that will be the highest value which will help us to be the sons and daughters of God. Like Peter experienced and proclaimed Jesus we are called to experience and proclaim Jesus and his message.
Fr. Joseph Pandiappallil MCBS