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The theme that runs through last and this Sunday is identity. In the previous Gospel, we see how Jesus’ importance cannot be restricted to the Jews alone because He is the Saviour of the world. As the Canaanite woman daringly asked Jesus for help, and given the manner of His response, we grasp an important lesson. In engaging with others, we must know who we are. Although identity requires a measure of self-definition, it is relational and is never done in a manner that closes us from others.
Today we get more of Jesus. In Matthew’s narrative, this is the turning point. So far the Lord has journeyed with His disciples, eating, drinking and sleeping in the open. Surely they must have been impressed and know who He is. But as if to test them after all these months of journeying together, with them experiencing Him performing miracle after miracle, He asked them about Himself. One would have thought that the disciples should already know that He is more than the son of Joseph. Their answers, not surprisingly, revealed a facet of human relationships and experiences. One can be with someone and yet not know who the person truly is. It was Simon who confessed again that Jesus is the anointed Son of God.
Today we hear Jesus calling Simon, Peter for the first time. Peter, the Rock, not Dwayne Johnson, will be the foundation that Christ will build His Church upon. Given the key to the Kingdom of Heaven, Peter will now play a central role, as head, of the early Christian community and will be the spokesman for the Church.
What has this to do with us today?
Through Peter’s confession, the Church is grounded in the faith of the Apostles. The Preface for Peter and Paul reads: “Peter, foremost in confessing the faith. Paul, its outstanding preacher. Peter, who established the early Church from the remnant of Israel. Paul, master and teacher of the Gentiles that God has called”. Our faith is inextricably linked to Peter’s confession and subsequently to his successors in the Church that Christ has founded.
Peter’s confession highlights the central role that he and his successors will play in the Church engaging the world at large. The question that Christ asked of Peter, resounds throughout history. That moment did not just end in time as if the question was asked there and then. Jesus continues to ask this question at every age and every turn of the century. “Who do people say I am?”. The answer must come unequivocally from the Church, notably through Peter’s successors: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Hence, we cannot ignore this question of who Jesus is if we are to be His Church. But this is on the larger scale, that is, it is the big picture about who Jesus is and who Peter is for the Church. The question that Jesus posed to the disciples may be ecclesial but it is also personal and it has implications for an issue that will increasingly affect us.
The question of one’s identity has come to the fore these days. Central to a person’s well-being is self-definition but it is not a stand-alone issue as it appears for many today. In these days of identity confusion, a person identifies himself or herself in a manner which requires society to come to terms with whatever a person calls himself or herself. It may come across as respecting a person’s right but it is not. Identity does not revolve around one’s own self-definition because who we are is always in relation to others. This means that there are truths which cannot be changed according to fads or fancies. It cannot be that the world must kowtow to my “truth” as if I alone define it.
Truth about who I am plays a central role in my identity and therefore self-expression. It means that if I know who I am, then I should be able to act accordingly. Apart from acting, identity also gives us a sense of belonging. For example, given an identity, one’s story does not get buried and one’s experiences are not lost or forgotten. Reality TV which we are all accustomed to is not just a form of personal story telling but it actually reinforces the need for “identification”. Yet, despite this drive to be special or unique, we also long to be a part of something bigger than who we are.
The sad result of identity as self-expression is not unity because the basis of identity politics is not really inclusion but rather a demand that one should be respected just because one has these experiences or that one belongs to a self-defined group. I define myself as this and if you do not accept this definition, then you are a prejudiced bigot, a racist or a fascist. It makes for difficult conversation because there is a reduction of who a person is to details such a race or ethnicity, gender or gender expression and sex or sexual orientation. It is very easy to fall into this kind of victim-trap. In Portugal, at Porto, a group of us experienced a truly bad service in a restaurant. Very quickly some of us concluded that the waiters were racist. Such labels like sexists, racists, fascists are not far from our lips these days.
The challenge arises when “feelings” are regarded as sacred. Then the assumption is that people will not be able to handle truth or reality. Thus we embark on this sad journey of trying to make sure that people are not offended. Operating at the back of our mind is the command to love and that if someone were offended, the guilt will set in that we have failed to love as we should have. The Apostle Paul told the Ephesians that we should speak the truth in love which means dispensing or shying away with the truth is never an act of love or charity. We should state the truth without pride, rancour, arrogance and condemnation. It is easier said than done but the demands to be charitable cannot overwhelm our responsibility to bear witness to the truth.
Actually, the greatest truth of our identity lies in how closely related we are to God. To navigate the confusion of who we are, JPII used to say that the truth of who we are is best illustrated by the knowledge of who God is. We are not reducible to our identity like skin colour or sexual orientation. Who we are is to be the image of the God who created us through Jesus Christ. Thus, the clearest picture or image of the Father is Jesus Christ the Son and anything else, a miracle worker, a guru, a liberator, a healer, a rebel are merely descriptions of what He can do. In today’s Gospel, only when Simon realised the truth about Jesus and acknowledged Him to be the Christ that he himself was able to come to fullness of truth about himself as the Rock. In an era where society is trying to know itself, the best knowledge of ourselves has to come from personally knowing Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the one who has saved us and to grow in His love and image. Today, the concern of identity politics is perhaps the best impetus for the evangelising mission of the Church. To know ourselves better, get to know Christ the Lord. To know ourselves best, proclaim Christ as the Saviour of mankind.
Last week as they battled the stormy sea, Jesus walked into the midst of their struggles to remind them that He would never be far from or ever desert them. Today we explore the far-reaching consequences of Jesus being with us.
In the encounters with the Pharisees or the Scribes, Jesus has never condemned the dietary laws per se. Instead He was criticising the assumption that mere ritual purity equates to being at right with God. A ritually clean person is not the same as an upright person. The laws governing ritual purity provide the backdrop to appreciate the context and the content of the dialogue between the Canaanite woman and Jesus. While it may rattle our polite sensitivity, we need to looking beyond rudeness or even exclusion to understand why this conversation had to take place. Last week, we hear Peter making the confession that Christ is the Son of God. Today this excluded woman also confesses the true identity of Jesus. She is the one who gives us the “Kyrie, eleison”. Lord have mercy.
Matthew’s audience is the Jewish people but through this meeting between Jesus and the woman, the boundary is extended beyond the limits of Judaism. In fact, the 1st Reading confirms that no longer will ethnicity determine one’s affiliation. Instead, those who attach themselves to the Lord will be called His sons and daughters. St Paul calls himself an apostle of the pagans for good reason. He is sent to those outside Judaism in order to inspire those chosen to remember their original blessing and perhaps to be more careful with their inheritance as God’s chosen people.
Today’s encounter shows us that salvation did indeed come from the Jews but it is not limited to them. The universal salvation of Christ is extended to the entire world but the reality of religious pluralism makes the statement that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world a challenge to navigate. The current respect for diversity may have forced theologians to relativise salvation in the sense that it is possible to claim that Jesus saves us but maybe only within the confines of Christianity.
There is indeed a task ahead. If Christ’s salvation is restricted to Christians, then the Church is no longer the instrument of salvation. If Jesus Christ were not the Saviour of the world, then effectively, the Church suffers from an identity crisis. She exists solely to proclaim that salvation comes from Christ alone and if she is prevented from her mission or not needed for that, then the temptation is to make herself relevant to the world and the world’s powers that be. She was not born to transform the world. She was not instituted to make the world a better place even though changing the world is important. A changed world is the fruit of conversion, that is, it is a by-product of being converted to the salvation of Jesus Christ. A good example would be the hospital system which the Church gave to the world. Hospitality grew out of Matthew 25: “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you did it to me”. Yet, that should never be confused as the “goal” of the Church.
Jesus is the Saviour for which the Church exists to proclaim. Otherwise, it does not make sense that there is a Church. This mission today in the face of diversity must therefore emulate the humility of the Canaanite woman. In the face of these great religions, the Church can copy the example of the same woman in her spirit of humility by respecting what others believe in. What the Church can never settle for is anything less than the central truth of salvation clearly affirmed by Peter: "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
In a sense, diversity and the requirement of inclusivity makes the scope of evangelisation almost impossible. One of the phenomena observed during the WYD pilgrimage was how slogans were worn proudly proclaiming our faith in Jesus Christ. The context is important as many of the countries once known to be Christian lands are now filled with empty Churches where people are nominally Christians or not at all. The locals might see us wearing those tee-shirts but detect no difference in our behaviour. Although the WYD did have a positive impact on the economy of Lisbon, the sad reality was that unwittingly some pilgrims by their behaviour, may have contributed to people turning away from Christ. It is an effect attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: I like your Christ but not your Christianity.
An expression like Gandhi’s scepticism stops us in our tracks and challenges us to match our behaviour with our proclamation. More than ever, our actions must speak louder so that other may recognise in them that Jesus is truly the Saviour and Lord of our lives. To propose Christ to the world, He must be our beginning, our life and guide, our hope and our end. The two great Sacraments, namely the Eucharist and Confession, are means to forge our lives according to this purpose of professing Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
The universality of Jesus as the Saviour of the world is not limited by the scope of our proclamation. Just because we do not proclaim Him it does not imply that He is not the Saviour. He is and He will always be. However, the universal reception of Jesus as Saviour of the world can be hampered by our inability to live the joy of salvation which He has won for us. In other words, He is Saviour no matter what. But He is not received as Saviour because we have not been received as Christians (like Gandhi rejecting us) or more likely, we have not been convincing enough in witnessing to the joy of His salvation. There is a world hungering for Christ and His Gospel. The challenge we face is to embrace fully the joy of salvation and be radiantly alive with the light of the Gospel.
I am exhausted and I need God. That might just be the sentiments of Jesus. Last Sunday He fed the crowds. This Sunday He sent the Disciples ahead of Him as He sought refuge in prayer and communion with His Father. The combination of these two Sundays’ Gospels provides a vista for us to appreciate how we can serve the poor and to recognise Jesus. When confronted with the crowd, the Apostles were definitely overwhelmed by the immensity of the people gathered and how they should feed the crowds. Their solution was to send the people away. The miracle that Jesus could feed the thousands has remained a conundrum for those whose minds are restricted by the parameters of “scientism”.
Today Jesus took time off and dispatched the Disciples ahead of him—a journey over the lake that should not have posed any problem except that they struggled against the squalls and the surfs. Yet, these did not really bother them until the appearance of Jesus for they did not recognise Him. The usual response to the unknown was trepidation and fear.
What can we learn from this scenario.
Firstly, trials and tribulations belong to life and we should not expect anything less. Secondly, God on our side is no guarantee that there will be no tumults or turmoil in life. In actual fact, with God on our side, storms are exactly what we will face. The expectation that God should spare us from troubles begs the question of what sort of God we believe in and worship.
The youths from South Johore have just returned from their pilgrimage to the World Youth Day. They endured burning heat almost all the days they were there. However, no major untoward situation happened there in Portugal. As they say, all is well that ends well. But a pilgrimage is supposed to be a reflexion of life’s journey. Again, one can glean two senses of this mirroring. First, as a journey, a pilgrimage has an end. The goal is Jesus Christ Himself and thus the destination for life is to be in heaven with Jesus Christ. Second, it is also an imitation of life especially its messiness. This is where our experiences meet the Gospel.
The path that leads to our final destination is fraught with challenges and difficulties. The definition that heaven is a state of perfect happiness or joy can easily lull us into thinking that sacred and holy journeys should be free of trials and tribulations especially when we have the Lord on our side.
This illusion was shattered by our experience at the end on Friday. We had departed Lisbon almost in a manner which reminded us of our arrival. The passport control took a long time because there were so few officers on duty. The aircraft closed its door as our last pilgrim entered and from then until Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur, the two flights were plainly unremarkable and uninteresting. We had a 7-hour layover in KUL before continuing to Johor Bahru.
In the evening, one of ours was denied boarding. The luggage was offloaded from KLIA to Senai. Then at Senai, another pilgrim only realised that the passport was left in the seat pocket after disembarkation. Thankfully, both the problems were resolved. The one left behind was reunited with the family a day later whereas the passport was found by Malaysia Airlines a day after at exactly where the pilgrim sat inflight the evening prior.
These two incidents merely highlight that one can come home from a spiritual experience feeling on top of the world and almost invincible when in reality the end of the pilgrimage is where one’s faith is tested. God grants us moments of consolation to give us the strength to endure our desolation because life will always take unexpected turns. During such moments, we can be gripped by the immediacy of whatever we are experiencing without realising that the Lord is near. Elijah needed to step back from the wind, the earthquake and the fire, to find God in the gentle breeze. While the others were terrified of the crashing waves and blowing winds, Peter needed to hear Christ’s voice for him to get out of the boat. He faltered only because he allowed the storm to come between him and the Lord.
Peter’s experience is a perfect mirror for so many of us. Perhaps this is inevitable because we value our ability to solve problems and not be a burden to others. When in trouble we feel the need to rely on our strength like the many times the young pilgrims refused help instead of accepting it from others. Perhaps it is an unavoidable flaw that stems from our self-help and self-made psychology.
As such, the highlight of the WYD is the pilgrimage and vigil. The walk and wait teach us that every pilgrimage has an end and the vicissitudes encountered along the way prepare us to face the trials of life so that we may not lose sight of the true North Pole, that is to be with Christ in heaven. The Gospel reminds us through Peter that we will always be able to walk on water, meaning that we can overcome life’s tempests only if we focus on Jesus who is always coming to us.
While we acquire the strength to persevere, the post-multiplication of loaves and fish experience of Jesus also reveals that connexion with the Father is basis for our perseverance. We need the Father’s strength so that we can focus on Christ and in Him see and serve our brothers and sisters. The ability to connect with Father and be sensitive to Him helps us to better love Jesus in the poor we meet along the way.
