Friday of the First Week of Lent -- February 22, 2013
Friday of the First Week of Lent
Matthew 16:13 – 19
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
“Who do you say I am?”
We are not called to live at a level of theories and belief systems. Those things provide a lens for our seeing. But we can only answer these Jesus-questions in our lived experience. This is where we encounter Jesus as he is.
And we encounter Jesus as he is in silent space, in stillness, when we are not driven by our ego-needs, when we are not compelled to slap labels on him. We meet him as he is when we are aware of the falsity of who we want him to be, when we drop our illusions about who he should be for us and for the world. In silence, we meet him as he is, behind the façade of our wants and desires and masks.
From this interior meeting, we can meet him in the world. But if we have not known him alive and stirring in our inner world, we will never see him in the outer world.
Matthew 16:13 – 19
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
“Who do you say I am?”
We are not called to live at a level of theories and belief systems. Those things provide a lens for our seeing. But we can only answer these Jesus-questions in our lived experience. This is where we encounter Jesus as he is.
And we encounter Jesus as he is in silent space, in stillness, when we are not driven by our ego-needs, when we are not compelled to slap labels on him. We meet him as he is when we are aware of the falsity of who we want him to be, when we drop our illusions about who he should be for us and for the world. In silence, we meet him as he is, behind the façade of our wants and desires and masks.
From this interior meeting, we can meet him in the world. But if we have not known him alive and stirring in our inner world, we will never see him in the outer world.
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