"Who do you say that I am?”

The first of these questions could be answered by offering the opinions of others, but the second is deeper. It implies personal relationship. Who do you say that I am? Who am I for you? Jesus’ closest disciples had been inspired by what they saw in him and by his vision of how life could be lived: ‘You are the Messiah of God’, Peter responds, the Anointed One, the one who had been waiting for, the one in whom is all our hope. 

As Pope Benedict remarks: ‘Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but an encounter with an event, a person which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction’. The friends of Jesus became committed to the Lord because they came to know him and his love for them. They saw his commitment to them and to those most in need, his care for the poor, his love for sinners, his ability to change people’s lives by compassionate presence, his challenging stories, his healing word and works. They recognized, too, the most central reality in his life, his close bond with the Father in heaven. He prayed, personally, constantly, intensely, living always in conversation with the One who continually loves the world, and all it’s people, into life. Their perception of everything around them changed. There could be no going back. ‘In Jesus Christ, who allowed his heart to be pierced, the true face of God is seen’.

The same Jesus Christ is alive and active in our world now, crucified but risen from the dead, present always, and by the power of the Holy Spirit continually revealing God’s face, help us to glimpse God’s steadfast love for us: ‘In Jesus we contemplate beauty and splendour at their source .... The truth of God’s love in Christ encounters us, attracts us, delights us.’ 

Jesus Christ gave his disciples the courage to live in a new way and he seeks to encourage us now to follow his gospel and, by its power, to transform our lives, our culture, our value systems. He invites us like the disciples, to come to him, to learn from him, to be healed by him brought to new life by the Gospel, touch by the peace and joy of knowing Jesus, the disciples sought to share the gift of his transforming love with everyone they met.. 

Their mission was clear: they would bring the good news to the world, the news of Christ astonishing intervention in their lives, and how with his witness to God’s concerned and caring love, and by the cross and resurrection, he hadchange the for ever. Even death had been conquered, it no longer had dominion over him’. Romans 6:9 Pg. 13-14

Share the Good News -Irish Episcopal Conference