There is a television programme that airs before the weekday 6pm news bulletin on TV1.
The programme is called The Chase. It’s a quiz show with a difference: four contestants must pit their wits against the Chaser, a ruthless quiz genius determined to stop them winning the cash prize.
On occasion, both the contestant and the Chaser interrupt the quizmaster with an answer before the question has been fully read out. At times, that interruption causes blunders — an incorrect answer that could have been avoided had the contestant simply paused.
Admittedly, today’s Gospel (Mt 16:13–20) is not a quiz. However, it involves asking questions, and it is advantageous to wait until the end before answering.
Jesus first asks: “Who do people say that I am?” Those around him reach back into the history of the Jewish people and respond: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah and other prophets.
Jesus then turns to those he has lovingly invited into his community and patiently taught — those on whom the future of the mission depends — and asks: “Who do you say that I am?”
It is at this critical moment, between the question and the answer, that Jesus must wonder whether all he has shared with them has taken root.
This same question comes to each of us at some point in our own growth into spiritual maturity: “Who do you say I am?”
Do I, like those early disciples, reach back into my history and offer the answer given to me by my parents or caregivers, my teachers, or a religious leader?
Or do I dare provide an answer from the depths of my own inner self? This answer may well differ from that of those who first nurtured me in faith. However, it will be mine, and my relationship with Jesus will be founded on it.
To arrive at that answer, may I suggest we first need to be still and silent — to hear the whole question before we reply.
The image is a mosaic of the face of Jesus, constructed from a collage of many faces.