I remember a very intelligent man saying that God does not exist because if God existed he would not be dying of cancer. Is it that this man does not have faith?
Jesus asked his disciples who people thought He was. When repeating what other people said, the answers came fast. But when Jesus made that question personal, “Who do you say I am?” I could imagine the silence. You know, sometimes when there is an awkward silence during a conversation between friends — then someone has to say something to break the silence? It was probably something like that when Jesus asked the question. Simon was the one who broke the silence. What he said was something that no one else dared to say. Jesus was the Messiah.
Both Messiah and Christ mean the same thing. Messiah is derived from Hebrew and Christ from Greek. It is is not mentioned in the Gospels, but the other disciples probably thought that Jesus was the Messiah that all Jews were waiting for. What they were afraid to say, Simon dared to say it. The response from Jesus was just as surprising, “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.” Simon did not hear a voice from heaven saying that Jesus was the Messiah. He probably reasoned this on his own from the miracles and teachings of Jesus. So how could Jesus say that it was the Father who revealed it to Simon?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (153) says, “Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. ” We believe in God because God has given us the capability of believing in Him. In short, Faith is a grace. With the capability or grace to believe in Him, God reveals truths into our hearts. How we respond to this revelation is a free response on our part. Again, in the Catechism (166) we read:
Faith is a personal act – the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others.
So Simon was given the grace of faith by God the Father. Then observing what Jesus did and said, Simon freely accepted the truth that the Father had revealed to him in his heart: that Jesus was Messiah. This belief was not kept in his heart but he shared it with the others when the opportunity came. It was possible that the other disciples had some idea Jesus was the Messiah, but their reluctance to freely accept this held them back.
However, Simon, who was praised and given the name Peter by Jesus, did not always respond positively. We remember how he denied Jesus. Yet, unlike Judas Iscariot, Simon Peter held on to the words of Jesus he had heard. Jesus said that every sin could be forgiven. His grievous sin of denying Jesus could be forgiven. He repented. Simon Peter eventually became a witness by dying for Christ. His experience of the forgiving Jesus at the end of St. John’s Gospel kept him clinging on to Jesus and to the task that Jesus had given him. Despite all his difficulties and failures, he continued to cling on to his faith.
What about us? If we were not given the grace of faith, we would have said what the cancer-stricken man would have said. The fact that we are here at Mass means that we have the grace of faith. Like St. Peter, we have encountered Christ and we responded in faith. We also mess up like St. Peter but are we able to cling on to our faith? When things don’t go the way we wished, would we let go of the God who loves us? Let us pray to God that we can cling on to our faith in Him and His Son. Let us also pray that we can be like St. Peter, able to share that faith with the people around us.
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