Fifth Saturday of the Great Fast – Akathist Saturday; Our Venerable Father Hilarion the New; the Holy Stephen the Wonderworker (464)
Great Fast Day 34
Read
Hebrews 9:24-28; Hebrews 9:1-7
Mark 8:27-31; Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28
Our Lord managed to get His disciples away from the crowds. It was time for the revelation of who He was to them. Perhaps they had a moment of light-heartedness when they shared what they heard others say who He was. Then Jesus pointed the same question to them. Peter’s stark statement of faith reveals the truth. Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One (Christ), who will save us. While we have all grown up in the Christian faith with Peter’s confession of faith, at that time it was startling for others.
The same question can be asked today of our Lord’s followers. Who do people say that I am? I believe most of us would answer that the world thinks our Lord was an influential person in the history of the world, perhaps a great moral teacher, a renown philosopher, even the founder of a large religion. But then the Lord asks the question of us, like He did to Peter: Who do you say that I am? What is our answer?
Yesterday, Pope Francis gave a very special and unusual Urbi et Orbi blessing (urbi et orbi means to the city and to the world – it is usually given only at Easter and Christmas). He did so as the world suffers through the coronavirus pandemic. He prayed earnestly with us for the end of the pandemic, for those who suffer, for those who attend to the sick, and many more. And then He raised the Body of Lord in the Eucharist, He who made Himself so vulnerable and small so that we would be saved, and blessed the city and world. Jesus is the Christ, He is the Saviour, He is the Messiah, who has the words of eternal life. There is no one to whom we can turn.