We must do all that is necessary to really know Jesus…
According to Vatican News, Pope Francis suggested this during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, today, Feb. 20, as he reflected on today’s Gospel passage in which two questions were posed by Christ: “Who do people say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?”
Three Steps
The Gospel, the Jesuit Pope noted, teaches us three steps that help us learn who Jesus truly is: to know, to confess and to accept the path that God has chosen for Him.
Knowing Jesus, Francis said, is what we all do “when we read the Gospel, when we take children to catechesis… to Mass.”
The second, he said, is to publicly acknowledge Jesus, which requires the power of God and the Holy Spirit.
Cannot Do Alone
He stressed that since one cannot do so alone, «the Christian Community must always seek the power of the Holy Spirit to confess Jesus, to say that He is God, that He is the Son of God.”
But–Pope Francis asked: What is the purpose of Jesus’ life? Why has He come?
Answering this question, he suggested, means making the third step on the way to knowing Him.
Francis recalled that Jesus began to teach His apostles that He had to suffer, be killed and then rise again.
«Confessing Jesus,» Francis exclaimed, «is confessing His death, His resurrection; it is not confessing: ‘You are God’ and stopping there. No: ‘You came for us and you died for me. You are resurrected. You give us life, You promised us the Holy Spirit to guide us.'»
«Confessing Jesus,» he continued, «means accepting the path that the Father has chosen for Him: humiliation. Paul, writing to the Philippians, says that God sent his Son, who “ emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…He humbled himself, even unto death, death on a cross». If we do not accept the path of Jesus, the path of humiliation that He has chosen for redemption, not only are we not Christians: we deserve what Jesus said to Peter: ‘Get behind me, Satan!'»
Satan, the Argentine Pontiff pointed out, knows that Jesus is the Son of God. Confessing Jesus, he underscored, means following the path of humility and humiliation. “When the Church does not follow this path, she is in error, and becomes worldly.”
Pope Francis concluded, inviting faithful «to ask for the grace of Christian consistency, the grace to follow Jesus in His own way, even to humiliation.»
