Who is He, and Who are We?

In the Old Testament today, God is talking about a man named Eliakum. It says that God will fix Eliakum “like a peg in a sure spot.”
 
The story goes that Shebna had been a bad steward to the king of Israel. In today’s reading, we are learning that Shebna is being replaced by this good man – this Eliakum – and God is saying “I am going to put Eliakum in exactly the right place at the right time. Eliakum, I’ve got a plan for your life, a vocation, a role that I need you to embrace. You will be like a peg in a sure spot.”
 
Don’t we also want that feeling, that feeling like we belong, that we’re in the right place, living the life God wants for us. Even if we’re suffering, we can bear it if we know the big picture of our lives, if we’re secure and able to trust that there’s a purpose for what’s happening.
 
And don’t we all hate the opposite feeling, the feeling of being the square peg in the round hole, like we’re left out, the wrong place at the wrong time. Or even worse, the feeling that life has no meaning, that when we try to plant ourselves in a sure spot, everything crumbles. It’s lonely and desperate when you don’t know where you fit on the map of life.
 
That’s why we want to be, like Eliakum, “a peg in a sure spot.” I want my life to be like a key that clicks, fits perfectly, and unlocks a door.
 
So how do we get from here to there? How do we move from confusion or anxiety, to being able to hear God’s voice, to discern our vocation, and finding our sure spot?
 
In today’s second reading, St. Paul says “how inscrutable are his judgments, how unsearchable his ways…who has known the mind of the Lord, who has been God’s counselor…”
 
God is bigger than us. Therefore, the way we figure out a life in God is not to write our own script, to bang out our own plan, and then ask God to fill in the blanks and make it happen. God is not the guy we send on errands.
 
Instead, Paul continues, all things are “from him and through him and for him,” and, by “him,” he means “Jesus.” All things are “from Jesus, and through Jesus, and for Jesus.”
 
Jesus is the sure spot. The way we enter into the mystery of our lives - the way we explore the depths of beauty and goodness, the way we mature and figure out how to sacrifice and do hard things, the way we discern how to be “a peg in a sure spot” - is by staying close to Jesus. If, as Paul says, all things are from Jesus and through Jesus, then Jesus is the true north on our life’s map.
 
One of the most famous lines from the Second Vatican Council is in Gaudium et Spes, paragraph 22: “The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light.” The “incarnate Word” is another way of referring to Jesus. In other words, Vatican II taught that the mystery of the human person is revealed only definitively in Jesus. Jesus, being fully God and fully human, is not only a revelation of God, but he is also a revelation of our humanity, our human nature.
 
Let’s sit for a minute with Jesus in today’s Gospel. I invite you to close your eyes, and imagine that we are living inside this Gospel scene. We’re standing around in a group of disciples. Do you feel crowded, or is it comfortable? Is it hot? What time of day is it? Jesus is standing right in front of us, searching our eyes, and asking “who do you say that I am?”
 
“Who do you say that I am?”
 
Personally, I am almost at a loss for words. But I dig to find a few words, the truth from my heart, authentic words that will hold me accountable.
 
“Who do you say that I am?” I want to embrace Jesus. I want to fall down at his feet and beg for mercy. I want to worship him.
 
His question makes me tremble, because the way we answer changes everything. The way we answer is also going to reveal who we are, who we want to become. Remember Vatican II - only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take light. Only by gazing in the eyes of Jesus do we find the sure spot.
 
Gazing into the eyes of Jesus, I almost get vertigo. His eyes are deep, endless. When we live the sacramental life, when we are regular in prayer, confession, and Eucharist, we’re spending time with him, opening ourselves up to his eyes.
 
The good news is that even though his look penetrates the half-truths we try to live by, he doesn’t flinch. His eyes are always the eyes of love. He never stops giving us a chance to get back on board with the plan.
 
Peter looks Jesus in the eye in today’s Gospel, and gives the right answer: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Later on, in another Gospel, Peter appears to forget this moment and make some serious mistakes. The whole episode about the rooster crowing three times, and Peter denying Jesus, that is coming. Therefore, conversion, and getting to know Jesus, is never a “one and done thing.” Even for St. Peter, the cycle of confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation, is a life long work. We shouldn’t expect any different.
 
But thank the Lord that Jesus has patience with all of us. Also in today's Gospel, he pledges to Peter that he will build his Church. The Church and her sacramental life is his gift to us, his way of remaining with us. He keeps calling us back to this altar, to this Eucharist. As we prepare to take Jesus into our bodies, let’s take a moment in our hearts to answer Jesus’s question – who do you say that I am. If we can talk with Jesus honestly – perhaps haltingly, but always honestly - if we can make conversation with him a lifelong conversation, then in time, God will place us like pegs in a sure spot. Amen.