The question, ‘Who do people say I am?’ is one easily answered, and the apostles do so without hesitation: ‘A prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ But the real nub of today’s Gospel is the rather more difficult: ‘But who do you say that I am?’

Peter’s response is theologically correct—indeed, revealed from heaven. Yet he does not realise the implications of his words. The Messiah he imagines, as he proclaims Christ’s identity, is not the Messiah he must witness and encounter. He imagines one who will come in triumph and power; instead, he meets a suffering servant. Christ will indeed reign in triumph and his kingdom will have no end. But for now, it is the Via Dolorosa which he must tread (the way of suffering), and the lash, the thorn, and the cross which are to be his banner.

When we ask the question, where do I encounter Christ today? we may look for the luminous and the sublime. Yes, we can encounter the triumphant Christ, present in glory—at least in glimpses. Yet, mostly, we are called to encounter him in the humble. And indeed, unless we learn to set our minds on the divine and not the worldly, we may well miss the immanence of his presence: the form of bread, which is his living presence, the cup of water offered in his name. But most challengingly, perhaps, Christ remains a suffering Messiah, and radically identifies himself with the poor and downtrodden, the oppressed and marginalised. Here we are challenged: let us not just profess our faith correctly but let us also express our faith correctly.

 By Fr Michael Grace