Francois Shamavu
Today, the Church family of God invites us to celebrate the solemnity of Peter and Paul, two disciples of different stature and unusual. They all died Martyrs in Rome. Peter according to today's Gospel, is the rock on which Christ builds his Church. He was crucified in Rome upside down. Paul, after having traveled on the Mediterranean basin to bring the good news to the pagans, he died beheaded. According to the tradition, Peter was buried in Vatican near the Triumphal Way in 64 AD and Paul was buried on the Ostia Way in 67 AD.
On this solemnity, the gospel awakens my curiosity and questions my motivations for adhering to Christ. Who was Jesus with whom, the disciples felt with great force the redemptive closeness of God? Who is this Jesus who, in his death and resurrection, they saw him identify himself totally with the living God? For the disciples, at the origin and in the maturation of faith in Jesus Christ, there is a question to which they felt bound to find an answer: with whom did they share their life in Galilee? Who is this Jesus whose life arouses so much hope in their hearts, and whose death, which led to the resurrection, now invites them to hope for eternal life from God? What mystery is contained in this man whom death could not defeat? What is the true identity of this crucified whom God raised by breathing his own life into him? How should they name him? How should they announce him?
I find it not easy to know the questioning, the hopes and the expectations that Jesus raised up in the hearts of those who followed him. Looking at the Church today, twenty-one centuries later, there is reason to believe that among the first disciples, it was not just a question of curiosity or a passing crush. It was a warm and deep adhesion. In this page of the Gospel, they do not manage to correctly apprehend the message or the gestures of their Master, and Jesus often criticizes their “little faith”. For them, Jesus is neither the Baptist brought back to life, nor Elijah, nor Jeremiah, nor just another prophet, as some popular circles seem to think.
The disciples do not understand. The foes of Jesus ask for a “sign from heaven”, instead of discovering it in himself. The demons know his secret, but Jesus orders them to be silent, because they do not know how to adore his mystery, nor his liberating action. Now Jesus asks a decisive question to his disciples: “Who do you say I am? Peter, spokesman for everyone, replies, "You are the Messiah." Maybe Peter is thinking of a Messiah who will lead Israel to its liberation, by destroying its foes. Jesus then begins to patiently teach them that, his fate is to go through a shameful death to arrive at the resurrection. We sometimes create for ourselves the image of an all-powerful and glorious Jesus, we forget the Via Crucis, we forget that he has always and already made himself the last and the servant of all, because he reminds us, he did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Like the disciples after the resurrection, we understand the true messianic identity when we take up the cross, when we learn to be the last and the servants of all, and when we follow him to martyrdom.
Nearsighted us like US, this people can understand the mystery of Jesus and proclaim it. It is just as at the end of the events of Calvary, only a Roman centurion who saw Jesus expire, abandoned by all, confesses: "truly, this man was a son of God" It is precisely in the abandonment of the crucifixion that, it is possible to confess Jesus, not as the glorious Son of an almighty God, but as the crucified Son, given up for love of humanity.
Today, the Church family of God invites us to celebrate the solemnity of Peter and Paul, two disciples of different stature and unusual. They all died Martyrs in Rome. Peter according to today's Gospel, is the rock on which Christ builds his Church. He was crucified in Rome upside down. Paul, after having traveled on the Mediterranean basin to bring the good news to the pagans, he died beheaded. According to the tradition, Peter was buried in Vatican near the Triumphal Way in 64 AD and Paul was buried on the Ostia Way in 67 AD.
On this solemnity, the gospel awakens my curiosity and questions my motivations for adhering to Christ. Who was Jesus with whom, the disciples felt with great force the redemptive closeness of God? Who is this Jesus who, in his death and resurrection, they saw him identify himself totally with the living God? For the disciples, at the origin and in the maturation of faith in Jesus Christ, there is a question to which they felt bound to find an answer: with whom did they share their life in Galilee? Who is this Jesus whose life arouses so much hope in their hearts, and whose death, which led to the resurrection, now invites them to hope for eternal life from God? What mystery is contained in this man whom death could not defeat? What is the true identity of this crucified whom God raised by breathing his own life into him? How should they name him? How should they announce him?
I find it not easy to know the questioning, the hopes and the expectations that Jesus raised up in the hearts of those who followed him. Looking at the Church today, twenty-one centuries later, there is reason to believe that among the first disciples, it was not just a question of curiosity or a passing crush. It was a warm and deep adhesion. In this page of the Gospel, they do not manage to correctly apprehend the message or the gestures of their Master, and Jesus often criticizes their “little faith”. For them, Jesus is neither the Baptist brought back to life, nor Elijah, nor Jeremiah, nor just another prophet, as some popular circles seem to think.
The disciples do not understand. The foes of Jesus ask for a “sign from heaven”, instead of discovering it in himself. The demons know his secret, but Jesus orders them to be silent, because they do not know how to adore his mystery, nor his liberating action. Now Jesus asks a decisive question to his disciples: “Who do you say I am? Peter, spokesman for everyone, replies, "You are the Messiah." Maybe Peter is thinking of a Messiah who will lead Israel to its liberation, by destroying its foes. Jesus then begins to patiently teach them that, his fate is to go through a shameful death to arrive at the resurrection. We sometimes create for ourselves the image of an all-powerful and glorious Jesus, we forget the Via Crucis, we forget that he has always and already made himself the last and the servant of all, because he reminds us, he did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Like the disciples after the resurrection, we understand the true messianic identity when we take up the cross, when we learn to be the last and the servants of all, and when we follow him to martyrdom.
Nearsighted us like US, this people can understand the mystery of Jesus and proclaim it. It is just as at the end of the events of Calvary, only a Roman centurion who saw Jesus expire, abandoned by all, confesses: "truly, this man was a son of God" It is precisely in the abandonment of the crucifixion that, it is possible to confess Jesus, not as the glorious Son of an almighty God, but as the crucified Son, given up for love of humanity.