What Does Jesus Mean to Me?

These days with people wearing masks publicly, it can be a challenge to easily recognize people we know.

 In Sunday’s Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus asks his disciples: who do people say I am? Peter by the grace of God recognizes that Jesus is the Messiah, the fulfillment of the hopes of ancient Israel, the anointed one, the Christos. Jesus then makes Peter the rock, the leader of his community of disciples, the church: today a 1.2 billion + global faith community, of saints and sinners.   

But who is this Jesus to whom we give our ultimate allegiance? The early Christian community saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the hopes of ancient Israel. And so, they named him the Messiah. But the more they reflected on who he was, the more they saw Jesus not only as the fulfillment but as the foundation of their hopes. They named him the eternal Word. The Gospel according to John captures this magnificently in the prologue: In the beginning was the Word.... Yes, Jesus was the foundation and the fulfillment of their hopes and our own.

Jesus was a real person. He experienced fatigue, hunger, joy, friendship, disappointment, loneliness, and death. He was a rabbi, a teacher, a prophet preaching that the kingdom of God was breaking into our midst.

Jesus worked signs and wonders proclaiming that good would triumph over evil. He possessed authority to forgive wrongdoings. He promised eternal life. He had a unique relationship with God; he was one with God; truly human yet truly divine. He was crucified and then raised up, transfigured into a new heavenly reality. Jesus is alive in our midst. And because he is alive, we are alive by God’s grace & favor.

Jesus taught that you and I can share in the kingdom of God by living a life of discipleship. How? By living prayerfully in the presence of God; by recognizing that our lives have an ultimate purpose; by seeing in Jesus the Word made flesh, the face of God; by reaching out compassionately with a helping hand to the people around us; by experiencing the presence of the living Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity, sacramentally and mystically in mass; and by being ready to let go of our earthly life, so that we can be in relationship with God forever. Yes, in death is eternal life.

Jesus also taught that God is our Father: a compassionate God, always near us each day to guide us on our journey to our heavenly home. 

I invite all of us to rededicate ourselves to Jesus Christ and to ask him to grace us anew, so we may grow ever more deeply in our relationship with God and manifest ever more clearly the glory of God in our everyday attitudes and behaviors.