Daily Reading

First Reading

Isaiah 22:19-23

I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.

On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house.

Psalm

Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
    before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down toward your holy temple
    and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness;
    for you have exalted your name and your word
    above everything.
On the day I called, you answered me,
    you increased my strength of soul.
For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly;
    but the haughty he perceives from far away.
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
    your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
    Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Second Reading

Romans 11:33-36

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him,
    to receive a gift in return?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

Gospel Reading

Matthew 16:13-20

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Reflection

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” In response, the disciples say, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” But what all of those readings—reflective of the popular consensus—have in common is that they are wrong.

Having heard the results of this popular opinion survey, Jesus turns to his inner circle, the Twelve, and asks, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter alone speaks: “You are the Christ [the Messiah], the Son of the living God.”

He would have said Mashiach, “the anointed,” the one who would gather the tribes and cleanse the temple and defeat Israel’s enemies. But then he added that startling phrase: “Son of the living God.” Even at this relatively early stage in Jesus’s ministry, Peter intuited that Jesus was much more than a prophet or rabbi or seer, however significant. He knew that there was something qualitatively different about his master.