21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, 23rd August, 2020

Gospel Matthew: 16:13-20
 

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets’.
‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God’.

Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.
And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’

Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Fr Donal Neary, S.J
Gospel Reflections for the Year of Matthew
www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

Nothing but Jesus

We all need some statements like Peter’s that give a rock and a meaning to life, It gives us a clue of where we belong at deeper levels. We all need statements that express our faith in God. For Peter it was his faith in Jesus, the son of God. This would keep him going all of his life, even at times of unfaithfulness and dan­ger. He could never forget that he had said, ‘you are the Christ, the son of the living God’.

We might wonder who or what is a living God for us? Where we might put our basic trust? What is it that, if taken away, we would be lost without? We can give our lives to family, country, a political party, money. Some of these are worth our trust and some not so much.

We need the rock that Peter found in Jesus. He was called rock only because of his relationship with Jesus Christ, the one who calls forth our faith and love and gives our lives a huge meaning.

If s not that we have nothing but Jesus – if s that we can inte­grate all that is important in life within our trust in him. It is God who reveals Jesus to us.

We want to give this to our younger people ~ a rock they can stand on in life, which nothing can demolish. This is Jesus, and in him all is created.

Recall strong convictions in your life.
Ask that they may he strengthened.
Lord, be my rock, my strongholdf  my safety.

Gospel and Gosple Reflection are taken from  Mass Readings and Sunday Homily - Catholicireland.net.