There are questions we can answer without thinking very much.
What time is it? Where are the keys? What is the weather going to do? What must be finished before lunch?
Then there are questions that quietly rearrange everything.
Jesus asks one of those questions this morning.
“But whom do you say that I am?”
Peter gives the right answer: “The Christ of God.”
But Jesus immediately begins explaining what that answer means. The Christ will suffer. He will be rejected. He will be killed. And on the third day he will rise again.
Peter knows the name before he understands the mystery.
Perhaps that is not so different from us.
We can know the Creed by heart and still spend a lifetime discovering what the words mean.
Let us begin.
Opening Verse
Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Invitatory
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever.
Psalm 94 (95)
Come let us praise the Lord with joy:
let us joyfully sing to God our Saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving;
and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great king above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth:
and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it:
and his hands formed the dry land.
Come let us adore and fall down:
and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God:
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you shall hear his voice,
harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness:
where your fathers tempted me,
they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation,
and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways:
so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever.
Psalmody
Psalm 50 (51)
Antiphon: A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy.
And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.
Wash me yet more from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my iniquity,
and my sin is always before me.
To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee:
that thou mayst be justified in thy words,
and mayst overcome when thou art judged.
For behold I was conceived in iniquities;
and in sins did my mother conceive me.
For behold thou hast loved truth:
the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.
Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed:
thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness:
and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.
Turn away thy face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create a clean heart in me, O God:
and renew a right spirit within my bowels.
Cast me not away from thy face;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,
and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.
I will teach the unjust thy ways:
and the wicked shall be converted to thee.
Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall extol thy justice.
O Lord, thou wilt open my lips:
and my mouth shall declare thy praise.
For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it:
with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.
A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit:
a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Deal favorably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion;
that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.
Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice,
oblations and whole burnt offerings:
then shall they lay calves upon thy altar.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Canticle — Isaiah 45:15–25
Antiphon: Be converted to me, and you shall be saved, all ye ends of the earth.
Verily thou art a hidden God,
the God of Israel the saviour.
They are all confounded and ashamed:
the forgers of errors are gone together into confusion.
Israel is saved in the Lord with an eternal salvation:
you shall not be confounded,
and you shall not be ashamed for ever and ever.
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens,
God himself that formed the earth, and made it, the very maker thereof:
He did not create it in vain:
he formed it to be inhabited.
I am the Lord,
and there is no other.
I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth:
I have not said to the seed of Jacob: Seek me in vain.
I am the Lord that speak justice,
that declare right things.
Assemble yourselves, and come,
and draw near together, ye that are saved of the Gentiles:
They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven work,
and pray to a god that cannot save.
Tell ye, and come, and consult together:
who hath declared this from the beginning,
who hath foretold this from that time?
Have not I the Lord,
and there is no God else besides me?
A just God and a saviour,
there is none besides me.
Be converted to me, and you shall be saved,
all ye ends of the earth:
For I am God,
and there is no other.
I have sworn by myself,
the word of justice shall go out of my mouth,
and shall not return:
For every knee shall be bowed to me,
and every tongue shall swear.
Therefore shall he say:
In the Lord are my justices and empire:
They shall come to him,
and all that resist him shall be confounded.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel
be justified and praised.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Be converted to me, and you shall be saved, all ye ends of the earth.
Psalm 99 (100)
Antiphon: Come before the presence of the Lord with exceeding great joy.
Sing joyfully to God, all the earth:
serve ye the Lord with gladness.
Come in before his presence
with exceeding great joy.
Know ye that the Lord he is God:
he made us, and not we ourselves.
We are his people
and the sheep of his pasture.
Go ye into his gates with praise,
into his courts with hymns:
And give glory to him.
Praise ye his name:
For the Lord is sweet,
his mercy endureth for ever,
And his truth
to generation and generation.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Come before the presence of the Lord with exceeding great joy.
Short Reading
Ephesians 4:29–32
Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth; but that which is good, to the edification of faith, that it may administer grace to the hearers.
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God: whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice.
And be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you in Christ.
Short Responsory
In the morning, O Lord, let me know thy mercy.
In the morning, O Lord, let me know thy mercy.
Show me the way wherein I should walk.
Let me know thy mercy.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
In the morning, O Lord, let me know thy mercy.
Gospel of the Day
Luke 9:18–22
And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples also were with him: and he asked them, saying:
Whom do the people say that I am?
But they answered, and said: John the Baptist; but some say Elias; and others say that one of the former prophets is risen again.
And he said to them:
But whom do you say that I am?
Simon Peter answering, said:
The Christ of God.
But he strictly charging them, commanded they should tell this to no man.
Saying:
The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the ancients and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day rise again.
Benedictus
Antiphon: But whom do you say that I am? Peter answered: The Christ of God.
Canticle of Zachary — Luke 1:68–79
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;
because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us,
in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets,
who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies,
and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers,
and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father,
that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him,
all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest:
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people,
unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God,
in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death:
to direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: But whom do you say that I am? Peter answered: The Christ of God.
Intercessions
Christ asks each of us, “Whom do you say that I am?” Let us turn to him with confidence and pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to know thee and follow thee.
For the Church throughout the world: that she may confess Christ faithfully not only in words, but in holiness, mercy, courage, and love.
Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to know thee and follow thee.
For the Holy Father, our bishops, priests, deacons, religious, missionaries, and all who proclaim the Gospel: give them wisdom to speak the truth and humility to remember that the Gospel belongs to thee.
Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to know thee and follow thee.
For those entrusted with authority in our communities and nations: grant them prudence, justice, patience, and concern for those who cannot easily defend themselves.
Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to know thee and follow thee.
For our work today—whether in an office, workshop, classroom, kitchen, field, hospital, shop, or home: keep us honest in small things, patient with interruptions, and generous with those whose burdens we cannot see.
Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to know thee and follow thee.
For our families and friends: strengthen what is good between us; heal old injuries; restrain angry words; and teach us to forgive as we ourselves have been forgiven.
Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to know thee and follow thee.
For those carrying crosses they did not choose—the sick, the lonely, the grieving, the unemployed, the frightened, the exhausted, and those who see no clear road ahead: remain close to them in the darkness.
Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to know thee and follow thee.
For those who have died: receive them into the light of thy presence, where suffering and death are overcome forever.
Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to know thee and follow thee.
And for ourselves: save us from being satisfied merely to know the correct words about thee. Give us grace to recognize thee, love thee, and follow thee wherever thou dost lead.
Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to know thee and follow thee.
Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
Concluding Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ,
whom Peter confessed as the Christ of God,
grant that the faith we profess with our lips
may take root in our lives.
When thy way leads through joy, make us grateful.
When it leads through difficulty, make us steadfast.
When we cannot understand thy purposes, keep us faithful.
Cleanse our hearts, govern our words, bless our work,
and teach us to recognize thee in the ordinary duties of this day.
May we never seek a Christ without the Cross,
nor look upon the Cross without remembering the Resurrection.
Who livest and reignest for ever and ever.
Amen.
Blessing
May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil,
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
THE PARADOX OF THE DAY
Peter gives the right answer—and Jesus shows him that the right answer will overturn everything he thinks he knows.
CHESTERTON FOR THE MORNING
“Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”
— G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
A CHESTERTONIAN MEDITATION
There is something wonderfully human about knowing the answer before understanding it.
A child can tell you that the earth goes around the sun. This is perfectly correct. He may nevertheless imagine the earth as a blue marble making a tidy circle around a yellow ball, with nothing particularly alarming about the arrangement.
Only later does he discover that he himself is standing on that marble.
It is turning.
It is hurtling through space.
The answer has not changed. But suddenly the answer has become astonishing.
Peter experiences something like that this morning.
Jesus asks the disciples what people are saying about him. The answers are respectable enough: John the Baptist, Elias, one of the ancient prophets returned to life.
Then comes the dangerous word:
But.
“But whom do you say that I am?”
The question can no longer be answered by reporting what somebody else thinks.
Peter answers.
“The Christ of God.”
Correct.
If there had been an examination paper, Peter could have put down his pencil.
But Christ does not congratulate him and move to the next question.
Instead, he begins talking about suffering.
Rejection.
Death.
Resurrection.
Peter has discovered that there are correct answers large enough to swallow the person who gives them.
We are familiar with smaller versions of this.
A young man says, “I do,” and discovers over the next fifty years what those two syllables contained.
A woman holds her newborn child and says, “I am a mother,” without remotely knowing how many sleepless nights, school mornings, illnesses, arguments, jokes, graduations, worries and acts of love are hidden inside that sentence.
Someone kneels before a bishop and promises obedience.
Someone takes a new job and accepts responsibility for other people.
Someone stands beside a hospital bed and says, “I will stay.”
The sentence may take three seconds.
Understanding it may take a lifetime.
So it is with Peter.
And so it is with us.
Most Christians can answer Jesus’ question.
Who is he?
The Christ.
The Son of God.
Our Lord.
Our Saviour.
We say it every Sunday. We may have said it thousands of times.
The danger is not necessarily that we cease believing the answer.
The subtler danger is that we become accustomed to it.
We can domesticate even an earthquake if it happens every Sunday at ten o’clock.
The Gospel will not permit this.
The instant Peter identifies Jesus correctly, Jesus smashes the comfortable picture that might have grown around the title.
The Christ will not simply triumph.
He will suffer.
The Christ will not merely be acclaimed.
He will be rejected.
The Christ will not merely defeat his enemies.
He will allow himself to be killed by them.
And then comes the sentence that makes nonsense of all the ordinary calculations:
“And the third day rise again.”
Chesterton understood that Christianity has an almost comic refusal to remain where the world puts it.
The world says that something is finished.
Christianity asks what happens on the third day.
The world rolls the stone into place.
Christianity waits for Sunday morning.
Hence Chesterton’s magnificent observation in The Everlasting Man:
“Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”
That is more than a clever sentence.
It points toward the peculiar shape of Christian hope.
Christian hope is not optimism.
Optimism looks at the available evidence and predicts that things will probably turn out well.
Christian hope can look directly at Good Friday and refuse to pretend that Friday is pleasant.
There really is a Cross.
There really is loss.
There really are things in this life that cannot be repaired by a cheerful attitude, a clever plan, another committee meeting, a better spreadsheet, or a sufficiently determined application of coffee.
Christianity does not require us to call these things good.
It requires us to remember that they are not God.
Death itself is not God.
And that changes the scale of everything.
Perhaps this is why today’s first psalm is the Miserere.
“Create a clean heart in me, O God.”
Before we can see Christ clearly, something in us continually needs cleaning.
We accumulate assumptions.
We accumulate grievances.
We accumulate little private versions of Jesus who conveniently approve of nearly everything we already wanted.
Psalm 50 asks God to sweep all that away.
Then Isaiah gives us the strange declaration:
“Verily thou art a hidden God.”
What a marvelous line to place beside today’s Gospel.
Peter has found the Christ—and immediately discovers that the Christ is still hidden from him.
He knows who Jesus is without yet knowing what Jesus is going to do.
We often meet God in precisely this way.
We look for him in success, and he is hidden in duty.
We look for him in excitement, and he is hidden in repetition.
We look for him in great spiritual experiences, and he is hidden in the person at breakfast who would like us to put down the telephone and listen.
We look for him in some grand future vocation, and he is hidden in the work already sitting on the desk.
The hidden God has an inconvenient habit of hiding in plain sight.
This is why ordinary mornings matter.
There may be nothing obviously historic about this Friday.
The coffee will be made.
Cars will start.
Doors will open.
Emails will arrive.
Someone will discover that the printer has once again entered into rebellion against civilization.
Someone will drive a child to school.
Someone will begin a shift.
Someone will visit a doctor.
Someone will receive bad news.
Someone else will receive unexpectedly good news.
Most of it will not appear in history books.
Yet every one of those places can contain the question Christ asks Peter:
Who do you say that I am?
Not merely when you recite the Creed.
Who do you say that I am when the meeting becomes irritating?
Who do you say that I am when someone needs forgiving?
Who do you say that I am when the work is dull?
Who do you say that I am when your plans fail?
Who do you say that I am when suffering arrives and refuses to explain itself?
That last question is the hardest.
It is easy to turn Christianity into an explanation for suffering.
Christianity is something stranger.
At its center is not an explanation but a Person who suffers.
God does not stand safely outside the human tragedy issuing observations about it.
The Christ whom Peter identifies walks directly toward Jerusalem.
This does not make pain painless.
It does something more important.
It means that no human being who enters suffering enters territory in which Christ has never been.
The hospital room is not beyond his map.
The cemetery is not beyond his map.
The lonely house is not beyond his map.
The moment when a plan collapses, a friendship breaks, a body fails, or the future suddenly looks smaller than it did yesterday—none of these lies outside the country through which Christ has travelled.
And because he travelled through it to Resurrection, Christians can do the strangest thing imaginable.
They can grieve and hope at the same time.
That is a genuine paradox.
The Christian does not laugh because nothing is serious.
He can laugh because even the most serious thing is not ultimate.
He does not deny Good Friday.
He knows there is an Easter Sunday.
Peter could not yet see all this when he answered Jesus.
Neither can we see all that is contained in our own answer.
Perhaps that is why faith is not merely the act of getting the theological question correct.
Faith is continuing to follow after the answer becomes difficult.
“The Christ of God.”
Peter said it.
Then Peter had to discover what it meant.
So do we.
And perhaps this morning we need not understand the whole thing.
Perhaps it is enough to begin where Peter began.
Christ stands in the quiet of an ordinary morning and asks the question again.
Not the crowds.
Not the commentators.
Not the neighbors.
Not the people on the glowing little screen in your hand.
You.
“But whom do you say that I am?”
And if our answer is Peter’s answer, then the day before us—even this perfectly ordinary Friday—is no longer quite ordinary.
Because the God who knows the way out of the grave is already walking into it with us.
For the Day Ahead
Lord Jesus Christ,
thou art the Christ of God.
Let me recognize thee today
in joy and in inconvenience,
in work and in rest,
in those I love and those I find difficult,
in the road I expected
and in the road I did not choose.
And when I cannot understand where thou art leading me,
give me enough faith to take the next step.
Amen.
Chesterton Radio
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