Who do you say that I am?

A short but demanding question, one that seeks everything we are, the entirety of our existence. It is one of those questions that can haunt us and, at the same time, lead to the greatest depths of meditation if we so allow it.

That is why I am going to do something different today, this homily will be a meditation, a reflection on this most fundamental and important of questions.

Who do you say that I am?

Every time we walk into this church, every time we come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, every time we approach the altar for communion, we should hear this question echo in our hearts and our minds

Who do you say that I am?

When God allows the worst in our lives, when it seems as though He has given us too much, when He looks at us the way He did the disciples and demands us to take up His cross, when He asks us how much we love Him when He says

Who do you say that I am?

When we are mad at God, when we try to avoid Him at all costs, when we would rather ignore Him than deal with Him, when we would rather run away from His embrace than to be held in the center of His love, when His Will is no longer ours and He asks

Who do you say that I am?

In the midst of temptation, when we are seduced by the world, by the Devil, by our own desires, and Jesus stands before us, His words clear, His question more a plea, a desire for us to show Him our love

Who do you say that I am?

It is not who am I but who do you say that I am, it demands a profession of faith, an examination of belief, a true test of love, because we can say who He is, but do we know who He is?

Who do you say that I am?

It is not flesh and bone, not the world who can reveal the mystery that is God, but faith, and if we struggle with our faith, then we struggle with the core of who we are, we struggle to know truly who God is, because we are made in His image and His likeness and if we do not see that, do not believe that then the question constantly haunts us

Who do you say that I am?

And, what’s more is that it is only when we profess that faith, when we know what we believe, who we believe in that the Church can be established, that a creed could be developed, that a common belief could lead to a common profession, “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God.” Because without it, the question still remains

Who do you say that I am?

And it is more than just saying You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, no, it is saying I believe, and not just I believe but that the bread and wine become, in every sense of the word, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, that what we profess means something, that what we say reflects who we are and what we do on a daily basis, because it shows our level of individual belief, it shows that indeed we are Christians, we are Catholics, and, indeed, we believe.

Who do you say that I am?

So then I invite everyone here to seriously ask yourself, to look upon Jesus, our Savior, our God, our love, and let His question echo constantly, permeate our lives, and know how we will answer this most demanding and intimate of questions

Who do you say that I am?