{"id":23163,"date":"2023-12-01T10:38:29","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T15:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23163"},"modified":"2023-12-01T10:44:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T15:44:42","slug":"knowing-jesus-for-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23163","title":{"rendered":"Knowing Jesus for Ourselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Consumed By Fire - Walk With Jesus (Official Lyric Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6GPzrNxlyYo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In a sermon on Matthew 16:13\u201320, Father Richard speaks of our universal mandate to live out the gospel in our lives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>On many occasions, Jesus asks his disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Son of God, the Messiah. Why might that be? The only reason I can imagine is that he\u2019s saying every one of us has to come to that knowledge for ourselves.<\/strong> We can\u2019t let someone else do our spiritual homework for us, but many of us do. We Catholics let the pope, bishops, and priests give us all the answers and then we just parrot them back. Has there been any experience of it ourselves? Often, the answer is \u201cusually not.\u201d <strong>Many Christians believe what we\u2019re supposed to believe. But here Jesus says, \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d What have you experienced? What have you personally discovered? What knowledge do you have?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This passage is most often used to preach the primacy of the papacy since Jesus tells Peter, \u201cYou are the rock upon which I will build my church.\u201d That\u2019s true, but a couple chapters later Jesus says the identical thing to the whole community: <strong>\u201cWhatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. What you loose on earth, will be loosed in heaven\u201d (Matthew 18:18). Jesus is not only talking about the pope; he\u2019s talking about the people of God, all of us. Peter as the symbolic leader has to do it first, but then we all participate in passing on the message.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People who live their prophetic vocation are those who choose this life of love and transformation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Without a constant infusion of the Holy Spirit, without a constant desire and trust\u2014Lord, give me your Holy Spirit!\u2014we all close down. We do!<\/strong> It\u2019s the nature of life to circle around the smaller and smaller self, to take fewer and fewer risks, and to never go outside our own comfort zone of people who are just like us. Friends and siblings in Christ, don\u2019t do that! We\u2019re all going to be gone in a few years. <strong>We only get one chance to live this life of love. Every day is a lesson in love, learning how not to bind up ourselves and our neighbors, but in fact to free ourselves and others. What Jesus is saying here to Peter and to all of us is that he will back up what we do<\/strong>. We are Jesus\u2019 emissaries. As St. Teresa says, \u201cWe are the only hands and feet, the only eyes and ears that Jesus has.\u201d [1] <strong>Jesus has handed over the mission and the mystery and the wonder of the realm of God to each of us.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Until we can live every day of our lives motivated by love, rather than by fear or people in authority, this Gospel will not work. It will not change you or me, and it will not change the people around us. Let\u2019s begin anew.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>____________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Story From Our Community<br>My contemplative practice centers on my breath. <strong>Each morning, I sit in stillness for what I call, \u201ccoming home to myself.\u201d Sometimes, though rarely, I feel a part of the greater whole which evokes great tenderness within me.<\/strong> I don\u2019t know whether to softly cry in surrender to such love or whether to bubble up with a quiet joy. <strong>For the last couple of years, I recognize how quiet yet strong I have become. I am content and at peace within myself. More importantly, I can now be amused by people and actions I would have judged harshly before. This is my experience of divinity.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a sermon on Matthew 16:13\u201320, Father Richard speaks of our universal mandate to live out the gospel in our lives: On many occasions, Jesus asks his disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Son of God, the Messiah. Why might that be? The only reason I can imagine is that he\u2019s saying [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23163"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23163"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23166,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23163\/revisions\/23166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}