Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

"But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." - Matthew 16:15-16

The first question has many answers - John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. They are all secondhand. The second question is the one that separates information from faith: but who do you say I am?

Peter's answer came from the Father, not from his own reasoning. Flesh and blood did not reveal this. It was given. And on that revealed answer, a rock was placed and a church was built and keys were given and the gates of the netherworld were not given permission to prevail.

Isaiah's image is exact: a peg in a sure spot, fixed so securely that things can be hung on it. The peg does not serve itself. It is fixed so that the household has something to hold weight on.

A man whose answer to the second question is given, not argued - received, not worked up - is the peg his family is hanging on. The revelation does not come through flesh and blood. It comes through the Father. But it builds through the long walk, through the hard years, through the places where the answer was tested.

Brother, who do you say he is? Not the borrowed answer. The one you could say with Peter's directness from your own experience. Write one specific sentence - not a doctrine, a knowing. Then ask: is your faith the kind your household is hanging weight on? Are you a peg in a sure spot for the people in your life? Tell another man both answers.

Lord, flesh and blood has not revealed this to me - my Father has. Give me Peter's revelation, not just Peter's information. Let me know you from the inside, not just know about you. And fix me as a peg in a sure spot, for the people in my household who need something secure. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us. Amen.