(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 09.15.2024).- The first public activity of the Pope after returning to Rome from his trip to Southeast Asia was the Sunday Angelus on September 15. Around 15,000 people gathered in the Square to hear the Pope’s Sunday message and pray the Angelus with him.
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Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!
The Gospel of today’s Liturgy tells us that Jesus, after asking the disciples what the people thought of Him, directly asks them: “But who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8:29). Peter answers on behalf of all the group, saying. “You are the Christ” (v. 30), that is, you are the Messiah. However, when Jesus starts to talk about the suffering and death that await Him, the same Peter objects, and Jesus harshly rebukes him: “Get behind me, Satan!” – He says Satan – For you are not on the side of God, but of men” (v. 33).
Looking at the attitude of the apostle Peter, we too can ask ourselves what it means to truly know Jesus. What does it mean to know Jesus?
In fact, on the one hand Peter answers perfectly, saying to Jesus that He is the Christ. However, behind these correct words there is still a way of thinking that is “of men”, a mentality that imagines a strong Messiah, a victorious Messiah, who cannot suffer or die. So, the words with which Peter responds are “right”, but his way of thinking has not changed. He still has to change his mindset, he still has to convert.
And this is a message, an important message for us too. Indeed, we too have learned something about God, we know the doctrine, we recite the prayers correctly and, perhaps, we respond well to the question “Who is Jesus for you?”, with some formula we learned at catechism. But are we sure that this means really knowing Jesus? In reality, to know the Lord, it is not enough to know something about Him, but rather to follow Him, to let oneself be touched and changed by His Gospel. It is a matter of having a relationship with Him, an encounter. I can know many things about Jesus, but if I have not encountered Him, I still do not know who Jesus is. It takes this encounter that changes life: it changes the way of being, it changes the way of thinking, it changes the relationships you have with your brothers and sisters, the willingness to accept and forgive, it changes the choices you make in life. Everything changes if you have truly come to know Jesus! Everything changes.
Brothers and sisters, the Lutheran theologian and pastor Bonhoeffer, victim of Nazism, wrote: “What is bothering me incessantly is the question of what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and papers from prison). Unfortunately, many people no longer pose themselves this question and remain “unbothered”, slumbering, even far from God. Instead, it is important to ask ourselves: do I let myself be bothered, do I ask who Jesus is for me, and what place He occupies in my life? Do I follow Jesus only in word, continuing to have a worldly mentality, or do I set out to follow Him, allowing the encounter with Him to transform my life?
May our mother Mary, who knew Jesus well, help us on this question.
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