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In any gathering of people there is a lot of what and why conversation, with a mix of gossip about who is doing what with whom, and maybe where.

In a Christian community we might know better than to indulge in the negative gossip, but then, even in our Christian gatherings, we spend a lot of time talking about the what.

I suppose that’s inevitable. Wherever people gather there are organisational and structural whats to be attended to.

But when a Christian community focusses on its what, it risks being reduced to a structured organisation alongside other good organisations, too quickly forgetting that the church is really more of a WHO than a what. When healthy, the church is a living organism (rather than organisation), the body of Jesus Christ on earth.

I’m sure that the first followers and friends of Jesus spent a lot of time talking about the what. But in today’s gospel Jesus leads his friends to the heart of the matter by asking them the WHO question: not what should I do now, or what is the best way forward, but WHO do people say that I am, then, even more directly and profoundly, WHO do YOU say that I am?

The good religious person will have no difficulty giving a response to Jesus’ first question, a casual enquiry: who do people say that I am?  It’s not too difficult to give an answer. I could say, Lord, when my family and friends say this about you, and then I read a couple of good theology books that explain that you are…

That’s enough for someone who is happy to be a good religious person.

But Jesus is calling us to a greater maturity, an invitation to respond from a lived relationship. Jesus asks, who do YOU say that I am?

We know Peter’s response.

But more importantly, how do you respond today?