Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus asks two questions and their difference is the whole point. The first - who do people say I am? - requires nothing from the asker. The disciples can list what they have heard: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Reasonable, secondhand, not asked of them.

The second question asks for something the first does not: But who do you say I am? This question cannot be answered from what has been heard. Peter's answer came from somewhere below conscious reasoning - from what had been given him, not worked out. Flesh and blood has not revealed this. Your Father did.

The rock, the keys, the gates that shall not prevail - all of this rests on the revealed answer, not the informed one. The church is built on the knowing that comes from inside, not the knowing that comes from outside.

Isaiah's peg in a sure spot carries this: fixed securely, not for the peg's sake but so the household has something to hold weight on. The person whose faith is the peg in a sure spot is the one in whom the Father's revelation has taken root deeply enough to support others.

Paul's doxology is the honest response to what God's judgments and ways look like from inside the life rather than from outside the argument: inscrutable, unsearchable, depth of riches. From him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. The doxology is its own kind of comprehension - the kind that arrives after the argument has been pursued as far as it can go and the mystery is still larger.

The early adult years often prioritize the first question's kind of knowledge - information about Jesus, familiarity with the arguments, competence in the tradition. The second question asks for something the first kind cannot produce: the revelation that comes from the Father, built through the actual living of the faith over time. That revelation is available now, not only after years of experience. It comes from the Father, not from the accumulation of information.

Who do you say he is? Not what you have been taught, not what you would say in public. What do you actually know from your own encounter with him? Write one sentence. If you cannot write it yet, the inability is worth sitting with. The question is asking for something real, and the Father will give it.

Lord, give me the second kind of knowing - the kind that comes from the Father, not from flesh and blood. Let me know you, not just know about you. From you and through you and for you are all things. To you be glory forever. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us. Amen.