Who Am I?

Gospel: Luke 9: 18-22

Jesus asks the disciples what the crowd thinks of him.  It is not that Jesus is really interested in their opinion.  He is more interested in our own.  The crowd thinks this, but what do you think?  The crowd has many opinions that will vary from day to day.  Even their own interest in Jesus will wane when something more new comes along to distract people from the person of Jesus.  He will then be discarded unceremoniously for the next new thing.  

How often do we get swept up in the interests of the crowd.  We react to every single "current event".  Our opinion is demanded of every utterance of the politician and celebrity, every action of the world.  And opinions will vary and shift like the sand.  We get consumed with this vortex and we lack a center, a place of reference.  We lose our own identities and selves to this unrelenting storm of unending vitriol of verbal violence.  

We must remember who Jesus is for us, the core and center of our lives, and in so doing we must remember who we are.  We remember what Jesus was committed to in his life, and we make that our commitment as well.  It is the path of compassion and mercy for the sick, the possessed, the hungry.  The storm of the crowd cares not for these things and even creates them.  We must remember what we are about, to Whom we are committed, the One we are to imitate and follow.