No doubt few Christians will have to proclaim the words, “You are the Christ” unto death on a cross like Peter. But all Christians must carry a cross every day of their lives and be ready to die on it. Concretely this means that we cannot be the disciples of a crucified man without accepting to be like our Master in everyday life. When Peter tells Jesus that he is the Christ, Peter is also stating in other words that apart from Jesus no other Messiah is to be expected.
The Messiah has already come; we must not expect another one. This Messiah did not want to transform the world in a moment, like a magician, letting us play the role of passive spectators looking on with wonder and awe. Jesus wanted to enter completely in the sufferings of the world, bear our sickness, our sorrows, our crimes. And he invites us to actively become other Messiahs like him by giving our lives for our brothers and sisters, day after day. This is for us the only way by which, through the strength of the Spirit who renews the face of the earth, we can transform the world around us. We must then have the courage of repeating Peter’s confession: “You are the Christ. I want that, concretely for me, in my life, you really be the Anointed One of God, the One whose disciple I will forever be.”
This faith in Christ and this participation in his cross mysteriously transform the whole life of the believer as well as the life of Christian communities. A new light brightens their life, a new warmth gladdens their heart Like their Master, the Christians in turn become a cause of wonder to the world. The way we live should make the non-Catholic or the lukewarm Catholics stop and ask with astonishment where we have thus learned to live in love and to suffer in joy.
