Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

If we were at mass yesterday, or looked at yesterday’s readings, we may notice something familiar in today’s Gospel. When Jesus asks, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” the disciples give the same answers we heard yesterday in the story about Herod. The same guesses about Jesus keep coming up.

These passages almost follow one another in Luke, but there is a story between them. And I think it helps to look at the chapter in order, because we have heard much of it throughout this week.

It begins with Jesus sending his apostles out into the towns to proclaim the kingdom and heal the sick. That mission starts a commotion. Reports reach Herod, and he becomes interested. Who is this Jesus? People offer all sorts of answers, but none of them gets it right.

Then comes the story we skip in this week’s readings: the feeding of the five thousand. The apostles return from their mission, and they are with Jesus when he feeds the crowd. Only after that do we come to today’s Gospel, where Peter confesses who Jesus really is: the Christ.

And that raises an important question. Why does Peter recognize Jesus when Herod cannot figure him out and the crowds are still offering guesses? What has brought Peter to this confession?

I think the answer lies in the story itself. Peter has been following Christ. He has been sent out on a mission, carried it out, and returned. Then he has participated in the feeding of the five thousand. He has obeyed Jesus and received the bread Jesus gives.

I think those two things together help him recognize who Jesus really is: obedience and participation in the miracle. They open his heart to God’s revelation that Jesus is the Christ and, ultimately, God himself. Peter comes to know him by following him and receiving what he gives.

The crowd also followed Jesus and ate the bread. But Peter’s confession comes within the sustained life of discipleship: being with Christ, obeying him, being sent by him, and returning to him. Herod, meanwhile, watches from the outside. There is something about following Christ and participating in the life he gives us that deepens our understanding and allows us truly to know him.

That is one of the great challenges of evangelization. We cannot simply go to someone and say, “Here is everything we believe, and here is a convincing argument for it.” We have good arguments. But people also need to begin living this life. It is through following Christ that the faith begins to fit together and make sense. And ultimately, in the gift of the Eucharist, we discover how it all comes together.

There is something in us that needs to follow before we fully understand. I think the early Church appreciated that more deeply than we sometimes do. Those preparing for baptism received sustained formation in how to live as Christians. Some of the fullest explanations of the sacraments came only after baptism. They were being led more deeply into the faith through a life they were learning to practice.

We tend to begin with questions about doctrine, because that is where their questions are. But we also have to ask: How do you live this life? What does a good and moral life look like? People need to practice that life so that their hearts become more open to receiving the truth about Christ.

I think we need to recover something of that. And we can only recover it if we live moral lives ourselves. If we do not live what we teach, if we do not show people what this life looks like, our witness loses credibility. We remain at the level of arguing about one belief or another, while their hearts are still unprepared to receive the truth.

So every one of us must strive to live the moral life, to live authentically as Christians. That gives credibility to our witness. That prepares the ground for someone to hear that Jesus is the Christ, to understand it, to receive it, and to come to know him for who he truly is.