Even today, Jesus is waiting for an answer from us.

In the Gospel, we heard the question Jesus addressed to his apostles, “And who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” (Mk 8:29).

Let us transport ourselves in spirit to the villages around Caesarea Philippi and become participants in the conversation of the Lord Jesus with the disciples. He asks them a question that has not grown old over the centuries, “Who do men say that I am?” (Mk 8:27).
The chosen people were waiting for the Messiah. The prophets were reinforcing to the nation that that time was near. John the Baptist, who enjoyed respect in the country, died under the executioner’s sword in Herod’s prison. The situation in all areas is difficult. The nation, however, was on the wrong track under the influence of the class of Pharisees and Sadducees. The country is no longer waiting for the Messiah to reconcile them to the Father for the world’s sins. The nation is waiting for a revolutionary to free them from the hated Romans. John’s words: “Prepare the way of the Lord” – cease to exist.

Jesus, by his sermons, his miracles, and his life, catches the attention of many. Jesus also receives recognition from the woman who approaches him: “Blessed is the life that bore you, and the breasts that you have enjoyed.” (Lk 11:27). Jesus, too, does things differently from the custom. When a woman is brought to him to condemn her, looking around at those who surrounded him, he said: “He among you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (Jn. 8:7). He stooped down and wrote something. Jesus’ action surprised even the woman when he said to her: “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more!” (Jn. 8:10-11).
All of this led the crowd to speculate, which Peter summarizes in answer to Christ’s question: “Some for John the Baptist, some for Elijah, and some for one of the prophets.” (Mk 8:28). Jesus knows that this is the genuine opinion of the people, and looking at the apostles; He asks, “And whom do you count me?” (Mk 8:29). Peter was too quick to answer. He has told the truth, and yet, to indeed vindicate that truth, he still has to live through several significant moments. Jesus rejects a misconception about himself.
Therefore, he commands the apostles to be silent, and he begins to draw a different picture of the Messiah: “The Son of Man must suffer many things; the elders, chief priests, and scribes will reject him, they will kill him, but after three days he will rise from the dead” (Mk 8:31). Peter, however, understood this only after Christ’s resurrection. Now Jesus has yet to rebuke Peter. Nay, once more, he will say to him: “Get out of my way, Satan, for you have no sense of the things of God, only of the things of men!” (Mk. 8:33). Peter’s confession, which we heard in the Gospel, will only receive its actual depth through Jesus’ victory over death.

This Gospel is also relevant for all today. We all know, we priests, you religious sisters, you brothers, and sisters, that our journey for Christ must mature like that of Peter. We know that by placing the hands of the bishop on our heads at ordination or by taking our religious vows, we have not yet shed our faults and imperfections.
Peter had to work hard to improve himself. And this is a timely matter for all of us who are serious about Christ and our vocation. Yes, we have left certain things behind, our lives had changed, as St. Peter says: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I left behind childlike ways….” (1 Cor. 13).
And that is why this meeting of ours and today, in the celebration of the unbloody sacrifice, we all want to spiritualize ourselves to take the right step forward. We are especially to remember that Jesus asks us to answer the question: “Who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8:29). And he doesn’t just want the answer of our mouths, but he wants more – he wants the solution of our lives in practice.

When Peter walked up to one of the Vatican hills, he was already an older man. He knew that soon he would meet his Master. But indeed, he did not walk sad, disappointed, which we know from a Church tradition that when they wanted to crucify him as his Master, he pleaded, “Not so, but with his head down. I do not deserve to die like my Master.”

Let us not be sad either, brothers and sisters, that our days are shortening, and many of you would deserve a real rest after your difficult and, let us add heroic journey. Even the many difficulties and crises have not broken you. Our place is here, at this time, in these circumstances. This is where the Master wants us to be, so let us work to the last drop like St. John of Nepomuk. This priest was not only educated but also worthy of the word “priest.” He did not succumb to the whims of King Wenceslaus IV and did not betray the confessional secret even under torture. He dies in the waves of the Vltava River.

We have a gorgeous role model in the person of Pope John Paul II. His motto: “Totus tuus!” – “All yours!” is an example for us.
Let us fulfill the words of Lacordaire: “The priest is the man to whom the Lord Jesus has entrusted all men.”
As well as the words of Francois Mauriac: “I ask nothing else of a priest but that he should give me God.”
Giovani Papini reminds us, “The salvation of the world is in the hands of priests! Christianity is the medicine that can heal humanity, and the priest is the only doctor who can dispense it.”
And Otilia Mosshammer explains, “The priest’s vocation is quite different from that of a doctor, a teacher or an engineer. The business of the priest is to teach the folly of the cross.”

Let us all be aware of all this today and say, conscious of our weaknesses but also filled with love for Christ: