Soon-to-be-Blessed Fulton Sheen once quipped, “The questions of God are more satisfying than the answers of man.” (That’s a variation on his friend G.K. Chesterton’s line, “The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”) Today’s Gospel (Matthew 16:13-20) gives evidence of this truth. God doesn’t ask questions because He needs the answers, but because we need to reflect on them and to find in them more spiritual fruit than human answers can provide.
Our Lord has taken His Apostles into the pagan territory of Caesarea Philippi. It’s a calmer place because it’s free of the scribes and Pharisees. He can speak openly without having to deal with their traps. This time of more explicit instruction centers around two questions to His Apostles: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” and “Who do you say that I am?”
Who do people say that the Son of Man is? The response to this first question immediately reveals just how unsatisfying the answers of man can be: “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” John, Elijah, and Jeremiah all resembled the Christ because they pointed to Him. The
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