Peter identified Jesus as "the Christ of God."

Friday, 9/25/15

Peter’s way of identifying Jesus as “the Christ of God,” alerts us to the real greatness of Jesus. It was in his being much more than the wonderworker we praise when we sing, “Jesus, my Jesus, you are my Lord.”

No. Jesus identified himself as being, “The only way to the Father.” So, let us let him be our way to the Father.

St. Paul grasped the truth of that. In his letters he hardly ever mentioned Jesus. He related only to Christ, as he was in heaven in Paul’s time, and as he is now in our time.

We can find a handy crutch for lifting us up to God by using the opening phrases in the Gospel according to John.

We say, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We muse over what that tells us about God. Then we take it to prompt us to talk with God.

Then, we say, “All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.” We think over what that means. Then, we speak with him about it.

Next, we say, “In him was life, and the life was the light of the whole human race.”

(Just as the light of the sun provides every watt of energy in use by all the creatures in the solar system, so every bit of all their mental energy is light coming from God who is the life of the world.) We think about that, then, we speak with God about our thoughts and dreams.