From the desk of Father Bline: "Who do people say that I am?"

Ok, ok, ok so I’m another year older now. Maybe I’m a lot closer to the generation most of you who are reading this. So I might as well begin by asking, do you remember Popeye? Besides his failed attempts to try to make me eat my spinach (heck when I was a kid I didn’t even want to have olive oil…haha), he did have that famous saying, “I yam what I yam." This weekend’s Gospel comes from a different angle with Jesus when He asks, “Who do people say that I AM?" He wanted an answer from His disciples, and He wanted it specifically from Peter because of what He would call him to become. Isn’t it what He always does? Jesus wants an answer from us to that question. So who do you think He is? Who would you be without Him?

I know trying to figure out one’s own identity may be more than most can handle nowadays. Every time we turn around there are more questions or assertions of who people want to be or think they are. Hearing the presidential debate and listening to the news it seems that identity is something fluid or that we choose. I am democrat or republican or whatever, male or female or non-binary or multi-binary (don’t ask me), Italian or Irish or Polish or German. Some defend that they are gay or straight or fluid in their sexuality. When it comes to identifying who a person is, it can be so hard to figure out. We know that no matter how many wars we go through or banners we wave in trying to claim for ourselves our identity, Jesus makes it very clear that in Heaven there is no Jew or Greek, slave nor freeman, neither male nor female (Gal 3:29) because our only true identity is found in our Baptism. This is a whole lot to swallow for this generation. This is why it is so crucial for Jesus to get a direct answer from us about who we say He is. Until we can do that, can we ever really know who we are in our identity?

Sunday, September 15th, is also the feast of the Sorrowful Mother. If you don’t know anything about this devotion take some time to find out why it is so precious. Pray for parents, who like Mother Mary, know the terrible piercing of the heart because of their child’s suffering or death. This week it is good to celebrate the feast of two saints who were given the stigmata/the wounds of Jesus Christ, St. Francis of Assisi (Sept. 17) and St. Padre Pio (Sept. 20). Pray for those private stigmatas we endure for the sake of love, that we may embrace them upon the Cross of Christ.

Have a blessed week!

Pax,

Fr. G. David Bline