Do You know who I am?

It was late Saturday afternoon when a crowded flight was cancelled. The single agent was rebooking a long line of very inconvenienced and frustrated travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk in front of all the others. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and said, “I HAVE to be on this flight, and it has to be FIRST CLASS!”

The agent replied “I’m sorry, sir. I’ll be happy to try to help you, but I’ve got to help these folks first, and I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out.” The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that all the passengers behind him could hear, “Do you have any idea who I am?”

Without hesitating, the gate agent smiled warmly and grabbed her public address microphone. “May I have your attention please?” she began, her voice bellowing throughout the entire terminal, “We seem to have a passenger here at the gate WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come forward to the gate.”

At one time or another, we all have encountered such people who think themselves to be more important than anyone else and push themselves ahead of others. After we get over our own anger, we quietly dismiss such egotistical people. Do we ever really know others? Do we even know ourselves?

In the gospel lesson, Jesus asks his disciples this question, “Who do people say that I am?” Jesus had done and said some amazing things as he moved among the people in the holy land. Perhaps he is John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets. Very few really knew who Jesus was other than he was a miracle worker.  However, his disciples had a closer relationship with Jesus, especially Peter, James, and John. They listened to Jesus, ate with him, worked, and traveled with Jesus. They should know. So, he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ.” How was Peter able to know Jesus to be the Christ? This very question is asked of you today. You regularly come to Mass. Who do you say Jesus is? How can you say He is the Christ, the Anointed of God, the Chosen One?

We come to know Jesus in prayer. I am not talking about reading the prayers written by the saints of past years. Prayer is a conversation with Jesus, a dialog during which you learn to speak to Jesus just as I am speaking to you now. It is listening to Jesus speak to you just as you are listening to me now. This prayer is not just once a week or just once a day. This prayer must be constant. In his first letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 16-18, St. Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. Prayer is nourishment for the soul just as food is nourishment for the body. You don’t eat just once a week. You eat every day at least twice a day. Some of us eat more often throughout the day. So, prayer must be constant as well. In prayer we come to know Jesus – asking him not what he can give to us but what he wants us to do for him.

Deep prayer leads to suffering and to the cross. Jesus told his disciples three times that he must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. Peter said “No, this will not do.” Jesus told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  How do you learn to think as God does? Jesus told his followers, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” What is Jesus telling you when he said whoever wishes to come after me? This is another way of saying whoever wishes to know me. In deep and constant prayer, you will come to know Jesus and who Jesus is.

This deep and personal prayer of which I speak leads to suffering and the cross. In this prayer you learn to deny self and take up the cross and follow Jesus. Also in this deep and constant prayer, you find love – God’s love for you and your love for God. When God’s love is received by a soul on the deepest level, it is often a love that calls the soul into suffering. There is no love without sacrifice. In other words, Jesus tells you that you must embrace the cross and follow him. Suffering with Jesus will open your eyes to recognize him.

Just as the perfect love of God called Jesus to the Cross, through prayer you will come to understand how the love of the Father calls you to a life of sacrifice. This divine love will not make your life easy. His love will make your life glorious, but through suffering. This is what Jesus means “for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”

I encourage you to make the commitment to learn and enter this deep prayer in addition to your other prayers like the rosary and your favorite prayers in your prayer book. Then, like Peter, you will come to know Jesus to be the Christ as you listen and talk with him, the chosen son of God.

Blessed be God. Now and forever. Amen.