Questions about Faith generate a lot of discussion and, honestly, a lot of pre-judgment. The world around us is the product of centuries of practice of Faith and refinement in the effort to discern what is essential. Yet, this is often dismissed as unimportant, as if the world achieved it on its own.
Science, the capacity to attend to what happens around us and to discover patterns so that we can understand the world and to make the best use of what it offers, is falsely presented as “disproving” Faith and the claims of Faith. The truth is that human beings learned to think scientifically through the refinement of Philosophy and Theology. The first human beings to think scientifically had learned to observe and contemplate and then to experiment. Knowledge grew from thinking clearly and keeping attentive to what really happens and to what is.
When Jesus shares His Life with His disciples, they experience something far behind what mere human observation can discover. He lives with them, sharing all that He has and Is, and then invites them to probe more deeply into Who He Is by asking them a very direct question: “But who do you say that I am?” Faith is not about this world as such; rather, it is about the very nature of the world as God has created it to be. It is about God, as He relates to us and to the rest of Creation.
RELATED | Human limitations are not limitations for God
Relationship with God in Jesus is sharing in Divine Life. When Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus identifies the source of this inspired response and gives Peter his role in the life of the rest of the disciples: “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.”
The call of the Church has always been to make Jesus known. Each member of the Church is invited to hear the question: “Who do you say that I am?” and to step into the precise ministry assigned by Jesus Himself. No two souls are the same. The differing “places” in the Church, the distinct ecclesial ministries, are always, in their essence, in perfect harmony. The Gates of Hell are about disorder and rebellion. When the Church seems to be characterized by this disunity, it is necessary to begin again.
The Scriptures show the Wisdom of God at work through concrete human history. What God begins, He also completes. He does not reject the work of His hands, even when we make an apparent mess of it. He calls us back to Himself, asking the simple question: “Who do you say that I am?”
RELATED | God works with our human nature
Asking questions and giving responses are part of human life. No question is a “dumb question” unless it is merely a mask for rejection and ridicule. If you really want to know the answer, ask the question. But then, we must listen. We must allow Faith to inform our understanding; reason alone cannot reach the depth of relationship to which we are called. How do you see God? What does He ask of you?
“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 the Lord anything that he may be repaid? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
