In today’s Gospel of Matthew, Jesus, en route to Caesarea Philippi, asks His disciples this question: "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John
the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

There is a great deal, theologically speaking, packed into this brief Gospel passage—from the power of our faith to the Church’s authority to teach and to forgive sins on earth—but today we should focus our attention on the answer we might give to the question posed by Jesus Himself to His disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” What might our answers be?

In order to formulate an answer to that question, we need to know Jesus. In order to know Jesus, we need to have some interaction or connection with Him. That can be accomplished by specific actions on our part: we need to read the Bible, in particular the four gospels or Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In doing so, we will come to know (1) what Jesus actually said in His very own
words; (2) we come to see how He interacted with people in their personal situations and circumstances, touching them personally, via His ministry and teachings; and, (3) we also can come to know what He did for people through the miracle stories when push came to shove,
when rituals or laws collided with real human needs, and how He responded—by the letter of the law or by compassion? Pope Francis recently quoted St. Jerome who originally said “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”

But reading the Bible is only the first step into developing a personal relationship with the One, True Christ who alone offers us salvation. We are also called to encounter Jesus Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist at Mass (and people ask “why do I need to go to Mass?”) when His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity—as the Christ—are made present in the Sacrament through the sacramental role of the priest and by the power of God. Here the real presence of our Lord is given to us to consume and so become, by receiving Him, conformed to His Mystical Body, the Church.

If you do not know a person, if you do not understand where and how he lived, or even how he acted and for what he stood or for what He believed, then how does one come know to Him at all?

In the Word of God proclaimed at Mass and read in the Scriptures we hear of what both the human man and Divine Jesus stood for, what He commands and expects of us today. And in the Body and Blood of Christ we are joined to Him and He with us, by consuming Him into our lives He shall transform us into His Divine Life.

But just opening the Bible and reading it is not enough. We need commentaries on the Scriptures to understand them. We must begin with a Catholic Bible and Catholic commentaries which are well-rated and commonly used to help us understand the ancient meaning of the words, the culture of the writers, the time and place in which Jesus lived as well as the mores and milieu of the day. Also we cannot read something in isolation or as a “stand alone,” but rather in the context of the whole Church and her teachings. Recently in a television interview, German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, a dogmatic theologian himself and the Prefect Emeritus of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made a point of saying that when we listen to a pope issue a letter or encyclical on any topic or matter one cannot read it by itself and make personal interpretations, but rather has to view it in the totality of the Church’s teachings and the
individual pope’s writings. The same applies for our understanding of the study of Sacred Scripture. Perhaps a good place for everyone to start is at the beginning and in a Catholic Bible Study class.

If we study Jesus’ life, His words and His actions, we will know Him in a more personal way. And then we can see how our lives wither align with His or not, and recognizing that we are not God or a part of the Trinity,yet we can with His grace be called deeper into His life.Studying His word in Scripture, praising and receiving Him at Mass in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and then
cooperating with Him in-and-through a community of like-minded believers, we shall become those who are both graced and able to Believe it, Live it, and Share it—the lifesaving gift of the Catholic faith. When that happens we might just be more comfortable in answering the question: “Who do you say that I am?”