Jesus is my Pandemic Identity (Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Isaiah 22:19-23,
Romans 11:33-36,
Matthew 16:13-20.
Reflection
Dear sisters and brothers,
I would like to start my reflection with a question: what is my pandemic identity as a Christian?
In this digital world,
Everyone longs for popularity.
Everyone wants to be famous.
Everyone needs an identity.
There are people, who count on their lives with how many friends they have in Facebook and how many contacts they have in WhatsApp.
Often, we end up checking out ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ for our posts: photos and materials that we share in Facebook. We ponder over who liked and who didn’t like. We judge the persons based on it. Based on it, we decide our own identity.
We live in a virtual community rather than real people-oriented community.
During the lockdown we have realised how many are real friends, how many are fake friends, how many have called us often enquiring about our families, health, jobs, and how many were really cared and supported in their difficulties and pains during this pandemic, COVID-19.
On the other hand, there are political parties and individuals, who are busy spending their money to buy their popularity investing in bots. Most of the time, it is not a real person, who gives their likes and comments to their posts but bots.
We are influenced by these tricks and dirty political plans. We create our opinions on a political party or an individual based on how many are following them and what are the images created by the bots.
These identities are fake and bogus.
Sometimes, we give importance to what the other thinks, says, and expresses the opinion about us.
Our identity is decided by the others.
Can the others decide what I am?
No.
Then,
What is my identity?
Knowing oneself is the best identity that we can have in our lives.
We may believe what the other person says, we may believe what the other person thinks, and we may believe the other person’s opinion.
But, it cannot influence us when we know our identity by ourselves quite well.
What we know about our identity is limited and finite.
What we do not know about our identity is unlimited and infinite.
The universe is so vast.
I am a tiny creation.
If we are limited and finite, there is something unlimited and infinite, who controls the universe systematically.
Our belief and our faith, reveals that God, is the All-powerful, Almighty, who created each one of us and the creation of the world according to His purpose in a particular country, in a particular language, in a particular culture, in a particular ethnic group, in a particular caste, in a particular tradition, and in a particular situation.
God has a purpose in creating each and every thing and each one of us in a particular moment, in a particular time, and in a particular way.
Can we question this belief?
No.
Our experience in the world, shows us the way. We understand that we, as tiny creatures, are instruments in God’s hand.
He brings the best music out of these instruments according to His time.
We act as He wishes and according to His will in our lives, by which we find our identity.
To understand it, we have the text from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 16: 13-20):
“When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi
he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist,
others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah,
the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,
but my heavenly Father.
And so, I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one
that he was the Messiah.”
As I said in the beginning, we all are interested to know what the other thinks about us.
Identity is important.
It gives us meaning.
It is a human nature.
Nothing is wrong.
Psychologists say who you are and what you think by your postures, positions as you stand or sit or speak.
Biologists say who you are by your genes.
We can go on and on what the other thinks with different subjects.
The Scripture says that we are created in the image and likeness of the Triune God.
Likewise,
Jesus as a human person wants to know what the people think about him.
Why did Jesus ask such a question?
What was the need?
He asked this question in the region of Caesarea Philippi.
‘Caesarea Philippi’ was situated about twenty miles north of the Sea of Galilee in the territory ruled by Philip, a son of Herod the Great, tetrarch from 4 B.C. until his death in A.D. 34. He rebuilt the town of Panesas, naming it Caesarea in honor of the emperor, and Philippi (“of Philip”) to distinguish it from the seaport in Samaria that was also called Caesarea.
With this background of identity in politics, Jesus was curious to know what his disciples may think about him.
So, he asks his disciples the question: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
This question is a general question.
It is not personal.
It is replied: “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
‘People’ compare Jesus with those whom they have seen, whom they have read and whom they have heard in the Scripture.
Does people equate Jesus with others?
No.
It is not.
It is a thought.
It is an opinion.
It is an observation.
In addition,
Jesus asks the disciples: “But who do you say that I am?”
This question is a personal question to his disciples.
In other words, Jesus asks his disciples: “Tell me who I am by what you have experienced being with me.”
It is a very personal question.
And it is a direct question too.
Jesus wants to know what his disciples think who he is.
Peter genuinely, proudly and uniquely gives an answer: “You are the Messiah,
the Son of the living God.”
Observe the change: “it is changed from ‘the Son of Man’ to ‘the Son of the living God’.”
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
It was the true self of Jesus.
Jesus is not the son of flesh and blood.
But Jesus is the Son of the Heavenly Father, living God.
It is a hidden identity as we read (Isaiah 22:19-23):
“I will thrust you from your office
and pull you down from your station.
On that day I will summon my servant
Eliakim, son of Hilkiah;
I will clothe him with your robe,
gird him with your sash,
confer on him your authority.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and to the house of Judah.
I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder;
what he opens, no one will shut,
what he shuts, no one will open.
I will fix him as a peg in a firm place,
a seat of honor for his ancestral house.”
Like Peter, unless we experience Jesus personally in our lives, we cannot identify Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of the living God as Saint Paul would rightly write (Romans 11:33-36):
“Oh, the depth of the riches
and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How inscrutable are his judgments
and how unsearchable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given him anything
that he may be repaid?”
For from him and through him
and for him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.”
Jesus identifies himself not with riches and honours on this earth but with his Heavenly Father.
It is an important lesson for each one of us.
What is the lesson?
The lesson is loud and clear that we all are daughters and sons of our Heavenly Father, the living God.
We have a firm identity.
We need not worry about anything on this earth , about what identity the world gives us.
We have heavenly blessing.
We have heavenly identity.
We need not worry what the others think about us.
We need not worry what the others say about us.
We need not worry what the others’ opinions are about us.
Only,
We need to worry what God thinks about us.
We need to worry what God says about us.
We need to worry what God’s opinion is about us.
We need to fear God alone.
He is our creator.
He is our Father.
He is our living God.
Jesus is our good and faithful friend, who lays down his life for us.
Human flesh and blood cannot judge us.
Human body is weak and vulnerable.
Human self together with the Divine image of the Trinitarian God, we can proudly say what matters is My Living God, Heavenly Father and My Faithful Friend Jesus’ mission in my life.
And nothing else matters for me on this earth.
We have the identity as daughters and sons, as sisters and brothers.
When we have these kind of thoughts and opinions in our lives, our identities become very clear and we enjoy God’s love and blessings in the form of peace, joy, hope and love.
We are in an uncertain world of Covid-19, a pandemic.
We live our lives without categorically knowing what is going on in the different parts of the world.
We do not know what will happen the next moment, day, week, month, and year to us and the others.
Many people ask what is the future for the Church.
Will it be normal as it was?
We remind those people who ask us these questions: where is your God?
Our God is the living God, not a dead god.
He works throughout the day and night to keep us safe.
It may be pandemic, but I am with you.
Our God is the Heavenly Father, who loves and cares for us.
Our God is Jesus the Messiah, the Son of the living God, who saves us from all harms, evils, dangers and lays down his own life for our own salvation and our own identities.
Yes.
I proudly acknowledge like Peter,
Jesus is my pandemic identity.
I may be insignificant on this vast universe.
But, my identity as a darling daughter or son of the Living, Heavenly, Messiah, Jesus my brother is with me all throughout my life journey.
I surrender that I may not be able to control a tiny virus alone.
Nonetheless I believe my Messiah, Christ Jesus fights against the pandemic and he saves me from all the viruses.
Yes.
Jesus is my pandemic identity.
I am his sister and brother.
He will never ever forsake me.
He is my identity.
I would like to conclude the reflection with a story:
“A famous stained-glass artist was commissioned to make a huge portrait for the window of the cathedral in Chartres, France. First, he laid all of the pieces he was going to use out on the floor of the cathedral. Among these awesome pieces of glass was a small, clear piece about as big as a fingernail. As the stained-glass portrait was assembled, that little piece remained on the floor. Only the big colourful pieces were used. On the day of the window's completion the entire city gathered to witness the unveiling of the portrait. The artist pulled down the cloth cover and the crowd gasped at the beauty of the colourful window glowing in the sunlight. After a few seconds, however, the crowd grew silent. They sensed that something was missing, that the portrait was unfinished. The great artist then walked over to where the little clear piece of glass lay, picked it up, and placed it in the portrait, right in the centre of Jesus' eye. As the sun hit that little piece, it gave off a dazzling sparkle. The work of art is now complete.”
Without the small piece, the work was incomplete. In the grand design of building the church of God, each one of us could consider ourselves to be that small but indispensable piece of glass.
That is our identity.
Yes, dear sisters and brothers Jesus is our pandemic identity.
The biggest identity of our lives.
May the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen...
