7 August 2025 – Thursday of the 18th week of Ordinary Time
Num 12, 1-13 ; Matt. 14, 22-36
Homily
There are several points in common between the two readings we have just heard. Both reveal the human propensity to want liberation and salvation without paying the price. The Hebrews had been in slavery in Egypt for several centuries, and they had fled in a marvellous and miraculous way, led by Moses and Aaron. Under their leadership, they did not hesitate to set out into the desert. But as soon as the difficulties of desert life became apparent, as soon as water and food began to run out, they became nostalgic for their life of slavery and rebelled against Moses and Aaron. ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt to lead us to this terrible place?’
Similarly, in the Gospel, Peter, who has just witnessed Jesus' teaching and several healings performed by him, readily proclaims in response to Jesus' question about his identity: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ But as soon as Jesus wants to announce his passion and death, Peter does not want to hear anything: ‘God forbid, Lord! No, this will never happen to you!’ Peter is undoubtedly thinking as much about his own safety as about that of Jesus. It is pleasant to follow a miracle-working Messiah. It is less pleasant to follow a prophet who is put to death.
In the Gospel we have just heard, Jesus asks his disciples: ‘And you, who do you say that I am?’ Beyond the distance in time and space, Jesus is also asking us today: ‘Who do you say that I am?’
The question ‘Who is Jesus?’ has undoubtedly remained a rather theoretical question for each of us for a long time... until the day when, for reasons particular to each of us, we were forced to question the ultimate meaning of our own human existence.
The Word of God became one of us. He died, but the Father raised him from the dead. This man in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells now transcends, in his humanity as in his divinity, space and time. He is present at all times, in all places, in each one of us, and he reveals to us all the ultimate possibilities of our human existence.
That is why the answer to the question ‘Who is Jesus?’ becomes the answer to the other question: ‘What is a human being?’, or more directly: ‘Who am I?’ or ‘What is my purpose in God's plan?’
By revealing who he is, Jesus reveals who we are, or rather what we are called to be. Faith in ourselves—faith in our value in God's eyes, regardless of our sins—is inseparable from our faith in Jesus. This faith in ourselves is obviously something quite different from mere ‘self-confidence,’ which often arises from a lack of self-knowledge.
Finally, we must not forget that Jesus reveals himself more fully to his disciples in the Gospel when he announces his passion and death. In this way, he reveals to us the demands of the human adventure. The demand for detachment, for a gradual death to everything that binds us to what is limited; the demand for the removal of all barriers that hold us prisoner, even if only in a way of thinking or even in a certain image of God.