Who do you say I am?

Today's Gospel reading posed the question "Who do you say I am?" - words by Jesus to his disciples. Fr Alliata presided at Mass and preached the homily which made me think further. It's so true here that when Jesus asked his disciples (and ultimately us), our answer is "the Christ" - a faith-based Jesus who rose from the dead. But Jesus corrected this - "the Son of Man must suffer, die and be buried. Then he will rise from the dead." Jesus wanted our knowledge of him and encounter with him to be firstly historical, human and even painful. Only then can we understand the Christ of faith - the one who rose from the dead. No death, no resurrection. Too often christians jump straight to "Jesus is Lord" faith without faith, understanding or accepting the historicity of the Nazarene Jesus. One good example, a friend came over for a visit and said "I believe in Jesus - He's my God" but then turned and said "But Jesus didn't really walk in these streets, did he? I mean, these 'holy places' are all human legends. Jesus never really came to this place in Jerusalem, right? He's God, he's everywhere, he's invisible. He doesn't need to walk among us here in jerusalem." I rest my case. So who do you say Jesus is?

Dark, humid clouds blackened the sky early morning before Mass today. Then after Mass the drizzle broke .... and it grew into a shower! Alleluia! We have the first rain for 2009 ... and before the Feast of Sukkoth was celebrated!!! Hope it carries on for the rest of the week. It feels so good to hear and feel and smell the rain quenching the parched dry ground.

Yesterday was very tense in the Old City area - an off duty Jewish soldier went to pray at the Wailing Wall, then walked out and shot 2 arabs in the streets. Arabs in the area rioted. Soldiers came to stop it. And the shooter was arrested but released to house arrest.

Yesterday night the President also fainted after his speech in Tel Aviv. He's 86 yrs old and still keeps a rigourous schedule. Hope he keeps up because he's a source of stability in this otherwise rocky government of Netanyahu/Liebermann.

Just heard a testimony of the first woman winner of Wimbledon - an Australian lady, who was testifying to her faith. Brought up a Catholic but never knew anything about the faith. During her great career as Wimbledon winner, she joined a protestant prayer meeting and "found Jesus", "invited Jesus into [her] heart", "prayed the prayer of Salvation". Now my question is - hasn't the Catholic Church been teaching this all the while these 2000 years? How come she went to all the catechism classes and still didn't know Jesus? Received communion and still didn't invite Jesus into her heart? How is this possible? My attempted answers are:

1) Catechism went wrong. Teaching methods, materials and even teachers who are not bringing the message and EXPERIENCE of Christ to the students. Catechism became too knowledge-based and abandoned the devotional/sensed-based/affective/experiential aspect of faith. "Smells and bells" were dropped out for "Show and know" methods.

2) Catechism stopped too early. People begin to ask faith questions all along life's journey. Faith journeys do NOT end with catechism to prepare for Confirmation. Believe me, people, that was the last time your faith was ever formally formed and informed, and your faith has stopped growing since that time. Stunted faith. Catechism should be there at every age, available to anyone at anytime. If that Wimbledon winner (she's an old lady now) had a re-evangelisation programme/catechsim to attend, she wouldn't have "found Jesus" ... she'd had realised that Jesus was there beside here all the time.

So who do you say "I AM"?