TO KNOW YOU IS TO KNOW ME.

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR A.
August 24, 2008.
(First reading: Isaiah 22:15, 19-23) (Psalm 138:1-3, 6-8)
(Second reading: Romans 11:33-36) (Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20)


TO KNOW YOU IS
TO KNOW ME.

Do we know who, we, human beings are? Jesus wants to answer that question if we, first, answer his question: "Who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:15).

By knowing Jesus, we will be able to know ourselves. By telling Jesus who he is, he will tells us who we are.

To the Lord's question: "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answers: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). Jesus is the Messiah through whom we become sons of God the Father.

By virtue of his answer, Peter becomes the recipient of the dignity and power that is in Jesus. At the moment Peter says who Jesus is, the Lord tells him: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the nether-world shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:18-19).

Peter assumes the task of telling all human beings that we all have the same dignity, mission and power of Jesus, "the Messiah, the Son of the living God".

We come to know our true human identity by sharing in the identity of Jesus, and since he shares his identity with all human beings, we are also to share our identity with all human beings. For that reason, anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is "the Son of the living God", must also acknowledge that all human beings are the children of God, one with and in Jesus.

By the grace of the Lord, our human dignity reaches its fulness in the universal community of human beings, the community which Psalm 138:8 defines as "the work of [God's] hands"; the community where human beings live in peace and justice, sharing the goodness and holiness of God himself; where "the gates of the nether-world shall not prevail" (Matthew 16:18); where there is no exploitation of man by man; where there is no dispossession nor abuse nor oppression.

Those who refuse to know that Jesus is "the Son of the living God", are also evading their responsibility to know themselves, to know others, to know God; they are in complete darkness.

As Saint Paul says: let us marvel at "the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God" (Romans 11:33) for today we can say to the Lord: "To know you is to know me".