HOMILY – 21st Ordinary Sunday of Year A
Matt 16 : 13 – 20 // Romans 11 : 33-36 // Isaiah 22 : 19-23 // Psalm 137 (138) : 1-3, 6, 8
As “Christians”, we are called to follow the teaching of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We commit ourselves to
live by the example that He sets for us1.
But who exactly is this Jesus Christ? Even two thousand years after He walked on earth, it isn’t
always easy to give a simple answer to that question - “Christology” is a branch of theology which is
still exploring and studying the Person and Nature of Jesus Christ.
It must have been even more obscure in Caesarea Philippi around 30 AD when the episode in today’s
Gospel Reading takes place. Nevertheless Peter steps forward and professes his belief that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Intellectually, Peter doesn’t completely understand what he’s just said, nor does he fully appreciate the
implications of it – we know that from the episode that immediately follows in St Matthew’s Gospel2
(which will be read at Mass next Sunday) in which Jesus painfully has to rebuke Peter for being a
stumbling block to His mission.
This makes Peter’s profession of Faith in today’s Gospel all the more remarkable and inspiring. So
inspiring and important that three of the four Gospels all contain this episode: Matthew, Mark and
Luke. Theologians describe it as a “triple tradition”, and wherever we have a triple tradition in the
Gospels, we can be sure that something of great significance is being revealed to us in the Scriptures.
In this case there is great significance about the timing and location of this event: Caesarea Philippi
around 30 AD. Jesus based much of His ministry around Capernaum and Bethsaida, two villages on
the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Caesarea Philippi was an ancient settlement about 3 to 4 days comfortable walk North-North-East of
Capernaum, located about a third of the way up the slopes of snow-covered Mount Hermon. It was a
place of rest and recreation for Roman soldiers and it contained a multitude of temples dedicated to
pagan gods.
Phillip the Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great had recently extended the city using taxes levied on
ordinary Jews, and renamed it Caesarea Phillipi to draw attention to the city’s main marble Temple
built in honour of Caesar Augustus. Caesar Augustus had been the adopted son and heir of Julius
Caesar, the first Roman Emperor to be deified as a god. So Caesar Augustus was the first Roman
Emperor to officially adopt the title “Son of God” to try to reinforce his credentials as rightful heir to the
Roman Empire.
1
2
See 1 John 2 : 5-6
See Matt 16 : 21-23
For centuries the world had existed without anyone claiming to be the son of a god, but when Jesus
takes his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, site of the most prominent white marble Temple dedicated to
Caesar Augustus in the entire region, he is deliberately contrasting his own divinity and title “Son of
God” against a very tangible, physical worldly alternative.
Jesus knows full well that the rumours about him amongst the crowds are that he might be a great
prophet, possibly even the prophet Elijah returned to earth to usher in the era of the popular messiah.
Then Jesus turn to His disciples, who have been with him for many months by this time, living with
Him, witnessing His miracles, listening to His teaching. And Jesus addresses them directly.
“But you,” he says, “Who do you say I am ?”
Surrounded by false gods of all shapes and sizes and most probably in plain view of a temple erected
to a powerful earthly Emperor calling himself the “Son of God”, it is Simon Peter, good old St Peter the
Apostle who is willing to stick his neck out and reply.
And when he responds, Peter answers the question not just for himself, or for the disciples who were
there, and for all of us today: “You are the Christ” meaning God’s Chosen One, “you are the Son of the
living God !” Not a pretender, not the adopted son of a dead, deified emperor – you are instead the
true Son of the true God.
It is a remarkable profession of Faith because Peter had none of the hindsight and very little of the
context that we have today. Yet inspired by God the Holy Spirit he is able to publicly acknowledge
Jesus as both human and divine.
And for millions of people today and through the ages, Peter’s example of great faith has inspired
them to embrace this amazing truth about Jesus Christ – that he was both fully human and fully divine;
flesh and blood on earth and simultaneously Son of the living God.
And Jesus affirms Peter’s great faith. This is the same Simon Peter whom Jesus addresses in the
Gospel reading of two weeks ago with the words, “Man of little faith, why did you doubt?”3
My prayer for all of us and our loved ones this week is that through prayer and our participation in the
sacraments, we might feed our faith, so that like St Peter’s, it grows and develops into what St
Augustine calls “a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come.”4
3
4
See Matt 14 : 31
See CCC §184