From: People For Peace
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR MAGNUS KOBBI, AJ
AUSTRALIA
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2012
If Jesus were to live today in our 21st century perhaps His question would be like this: Who do the modern media communications say that I am? What does Sydney Times, Monitor Newspaper Uganda, Time magazines etc write about me and my followers? What programmes are the radios and TVs broadcasting about me? What information is available about my personal life, character, preaching and work on the Internet? What are the modern preachers saying about me? Etc.
I think it’s good to look at the questions of Jesus in our modern context because there is credibility gap that exists between the communications media and the people. Many people are sceptical about what appears in modern news papers. This is because these claimed printed truths often depend not on objective reality but on the party line, on the views of those who fund it.
Even the radios and TVs are fashioned according to the desires of the advertisers. Even the internet which was in the beginning thought to bring out the whole truth is being doubted today because we don’t know which information we get in the net is reliable and which is not.
The question Jesus put to his disciples at Caesarea Philippi shows that Christ was not satisfied by the answers that came from the communications media of his time; namely oral communication, hearsay or even gossips. And so he asked his disciples “Who do you say that I am?” This is seemingly easy question if one answers it merely from the head. I would say the answer of Peter seems very much from the head he says, “You are the Christ”. We need to remind ourselves that it is easy for us too to answer this question from the head only.
It is difficult to answer this question because our response to it should come both from the head and the heart. As we can see when Peter is faced with a situation to answer this question from the heart he started to become shaky. Jesus Christ seems to tell Peter what it means to be “The Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One”, what being the Christ involve. Like Peter we may look at Christ as a great political leader, unconquerable, one who must not suffer etc.
Therefore, Jesus tells Peter clearly the truth; “That he will have to suffer many things, and be rejected by the priests and the scribes. He will be killed but after 3 days he will rise to life again.”
What is the answer of Peter to this truth? He could not handle it so he started rebuking Jesus. Consequently, Jesus comes up with stronger words; “Get behind me Satan, because your attitude show that you are not on the side of God. Yours is a very human and worldly way of looking at me as the Christ.”
My brothers and sisters we are challenged today to give our answers individually to this question of Jesus “Who do you say I am?” Each of us is to give his/her own answer, not borrowed from others, books, philosophy, theology or the media. Our answers must come from personal convictions and experiences not just from the head only but also from the heart.
This means our answers have to be not mere intellectual and theoretical answers. But answers that accept Jesus as our saviour, Messiah and leader and so answers that bring in our lives real concrete changes in the way we live, we pray, we forgive and bring changes in the way we work to challenge the evils in us, in our family, our community, our country and our world today.
We have to give answers that inspire us to lead our lives according to the spirit of poverty, chastity, and obedience. This is what it means to follow Christ’s way of the cross, to be able to commit ourselves fully to God and His Kingdom. All of us can do this, but only if we answer the question both from our head and our heart.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage
That this generation can give to the generations
To come- All of us have a role.