The gospel for Friday of the 25th week in Ordinary Time is taken from Luke 9, 1822. Once, when Jesus was praying in solitude and his disciples were with him, he asked them, who do the crowd say that I am? They said in reply, john the Baptist, others, Elijah, still others. One of the ancient prophets has arisen. And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Peter said in reply, the Christ of God.

He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. He said, the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. What I believe Jesus is trying to make clear is even though Peter used the right words, he didn’t fully understand. It was impossible for any of the disciples to fully grasp who Jesus was and the gift that he returned to the Father to send to them. It could only come to them after they received the gifts of Christ’s death on the cross. Then they could know.

Then they could see. Please ponder these images in your heart. And when the music ends, I will close with a prayer. Closing prayer Other words are easy. We can say Jesus is Lord. We can say God is present.

But we have to grow into an experience of these things and know how important they are and how powerful they are. To say it is easy to know. It is difficult. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.