26.09.25 Mengenal Yesus yang Sesungguhnya

Friday 25th week in ordinary time "Lk 9:18-22" Now it happened that as he was praying alone the disciples were with him; and he asked them, "Who do the people say that I am?" And they answered, "John the Baptist; but others say, Elijah; and others, that one of the old prophets has risen." And he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered, "The Christ of God." Many people had different opinions about Jesus because each one had a different relationship with Him. The entire Gospels give us an accurate description of Jesus written by God Himself. And yet different readers can see Jesus in different ways. For that reason the Holy Spirit comes to assist us when we read the Gospel so that we know Jesus, the 'real' Jesus Christ that walked on earth two thousand years ago and not just an "opinion" of Jesus.The Apostles transmitted what they saw. Then the early Christians transmitted what they heard from the Apostles. Some of those things were put in writing and became the New Testament. Some other things were never written, just transmitted from generation to generation. That's what we call Tradition. Tradition allows us to understand the Gospels appropriately and know the 'Real Jesus' rather than my 'opinion' about Jesus.In 1865 missionary priests were allowed to go to Japan after more than 250 years of prohibition and persecution of Christians. Some people who lived in Urakami (a village near Nagasaki) received a French priest, Bernard Thadee Petitjean, and confessed to him that their families had kept the 'Kirishitan' (Christian) faith all that time without priests. But they wanted to ask three questions: 1) Where is your wife? "I have no wife," said the priest; 2) Do you have a Mother in Heaven? "The Virgin Mary is my Mother," he replied; and 3) Do you follow a bishop dressed in white? "Yes, I follow the Pope." They were satisfied with the answers, explaining that three centuries before, the priests told them that other priests would come one day and, in order to make sure that they were the successors of the Apostles, those questions had to be asked. Mary, Mother of the Church, help me to read the Gospel with the same Spirit with which it was written; to see Jesus as you, Mother, saw Him.