Who are you?
Better yet, Who am I? Do you know? If you do, could you please see me after Mass and tell me? I have been trying to figure it out for 65 years.
I have the sense that if I asked 20 of you who am I, apart from some obvious answers (Deacon, Old Guy, Grey Hair, spitting image of George Clooney. Or Mr. Dressup) – I would get 20 different answers.
Why is that?
I think it is because as human beings we file people into some existing slot in our brains – someone we have heard about, or someone we already know about and have experienced. So when you look at me, you file me away based on an almost preconceived notion of who I am in relation to people you have met before. Am I right? Or am I right.
So I am filed away somewhere between Mr. Dressup’s hair and Morgan Freemans voice. You don’t file me away with images of long-haired hippy motorcycle dudes. Which is strange, because thats who I was in the 60’s. Or file me away with Lederhosen-wearing accordion players. Because I did that too.
We do that with people, don’t we. We look at them, and file them away based on our life experiences. Or by what others say about them.
At its worst, it means that we look at each one of the over half a million priests who serve us or have served us over the last 50 years and see one of the hundreds (or perhaps several thousand) who have fallen away from their responsibilities. We see the less-than-one %, not the more-than-99%.
Back when my son was 5 or 6, he would sit waiting at the end of the pew, and would come and join me in the exit procession. Nowadays, it is my Grandson who lives in here in Newmarket who does the same, looking forward to walking hand in hand with his Grandad at the end of Mass. When you see that, do you see a grandad and grandson? Or do you see an old clergy holding hands with a young boy. And all that implies.
We do that with people, don’t we.
And so it is no surprise that we do that with God as well.
In todays Gospel, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “Some say you must be John the Baptist; others are saying you are Elijah; and still others, that you’re one of the prophets.” There were all kinds of impressions out there. In Jesus’ case, people’s “prophet” was one conception people thought they knew, so that’s how they categorized Jesus.
Peter ventures that Jesus must be the Messiah, an ancient Jewish concept about a Saviour figure who would come to rescue and redeem Israel.
Jesus then revealed something deeper, more difficult about himself – he has just proclaimed his true essence and reason for being — and his “friends” try to squelch it.
Everything was OK when he was going around making everybody else happy — feeding, healing, and stuff like that. But his disciples don’t want to hear about anything that will threaten what they have come to know and expect from him. Passion. Persecution. Death.
Peter is like most of us:
I want the Jesus who gets me a new car – who helps me win the lottery. I want the Jesus who tells me I’m special and pats me on the back. I don’t want to be with this Jesus who pulls me along toward dangerous places, who pushes me into confrontation with injustice, who risks and even offers his life in some larger cause I don’t really understand. I don’t want the Jesus who pushes me out of the shadows and into the spotlight. Who pushes me out of my comfort zone.
Today’s Gospel represents a key moment, when you and I are called to move from a passive and juvenile faith into a more mature faith that is willing to take responsibility and to put the focus on what we are meant to do, rather than continuing to be told what to do and be. It is that moment when we choose to step forward in faith toward our own destiny. To our own vocation. Because Vocation does not come from a voice “out there” calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice “in here” calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.
This week, take time to examine how often you try to put people and events into those pre-determined slots, as if you knew all about who they are and what they are. Because it’s important to re-examine our conceptions to make sure we don’t limit our view of people, and instead be able to see them in a fuller and more complete way.
But more importantly, look at the times when you put yourself into predetermined slots of who and what you think you are. Because it’s important to re-examine your conceptions of self to make sure you don’t limit your view of who you are, and instead be able to see yourself in a fuller and more complete way
Dare to see in yourself what God sees in you. Dare to see the beauty and purpose that lies within you. Dare to look at your caterpillar self and see the butterfly.
Dare to be who God created you to be. And discover who you are.