“And Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’” (Luke 9:18-22).
I imagine what an anomaly Christ would have appeared. There He was – a completely disempowered person. And there He was completely powerful.
He was under the dominion of the Roman Empire and even of His own Religious teachings, and yet, He is the CREATOR of all these things and He was in fact under nobody’s dominion. He was the MOST FREE man to have ever lived, because He understood the true meaning of freedom – which is to submit one’s will to the Holy Will of God.
There was literally nothing at all that He could not do. He could have done anything in the world that could be imagined and anything in the world that could not be imagined as well…
I can imagine the people who grew up with Him and those who knew Him from infancy thinking about His quiet bearing. I can imagine the Majesty of His Being because He truly had nothing to be afraid of. I can imagine His calmness.
How many times do we hear in the Scriptures that the Apostles were scared and Christ calmed them – ad then also calmed the storm…?
And knowing how strange He must have appeared – like nobody who had ever lived – it must have seemed a very strange thing to try to work out who – in fact – Christ really was.
And yet, Saint Simon Peter knew…
“Now it happened that as he was praying alone the disciples were with him; and he asked them, ‘Who do the people say that I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist; but others say, Elijah; and others, that one of the old prophets has risen.’ And he said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’” (Luke 9:18-22).
And because of this strong faith of Saint Peter, He became the ROCK upon which the Church was built…
In 1865, after more than two hundred and fifty years of prohibition, the Japanese government allowed missionary priests into the country. In a village near Nagasaki, there were a group of Christians, who had continued to practice their faith quietly for over three hundred years. When the first priest arrived, they asked him three questions: Did he have a wife? (No); Did he have a Mother in Heaven? (Yes); and Did he follow the Bishop in White? (Yes, he followed the Pope in Rome).
They knew to ask these questions because this was what they had been passing down from generation to generation when they were in seclusion from the Holy Church. And they knew that these three thigs proved that this Priest was in fact a successor of the Church of the One True Christ. And that succession meant that they were following the One True God.
And knowing this, I feel blessed, because I have never had to hold those questions in and pass them down through the generations… How lucky and blessed am I…!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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