The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

June 29, 2025 – Saints Peter and Paul, Matthew 16:13-19

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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In my earlier years I enjoyed participating in competitive team sports. I was quite conscious of the difference between warm-ups and the real game. I could drain two or three jump shots prior to the actual game, but I knew that they were not counted in the final score. Draining a couple of long putts on the practice green had no bearing on the actual score of my round of eighteen.

Today’s gospel recalls the very important exchange between Jesus and his disciples. Peter is singled out for a very important exchange with the Lord. Jesus asks him what was being said about those who knew Jesus. Think of this as a sort of a personal opinion poll being conducted by Jesus.

Peter’s own reply was “spot on” when he responded that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Or to put it another way, Peter affirmed that Jesus was directly connected with God. Peter and others can be assured that when they see Jesus, they were also seeing something about God. Heaven had landed on Earth in the person of Jesus.

Now let’s recall how today’s gospel ends. It’s another reference to the connection between heaven and earth. But it reversed the movement between these two “places.” While Jesus came from above, what happens on earth – all that is good -- ascends to the heavenly realm. Whatever that is done on earth, like acts of assistance to anyone in need of help, or feeding the hungry, or forgiving the faults of others, becomes part of heaven.

God as creator, God as redeemer and God as sanctifier has revealed the pervasive connection that exists between heaven and earth. Think of it as a two-way street. Movement is continuously moving in both directions. Metaphorically speaking, God’s grace comes down from heaven while the good of human actions ascends to heaven to be incorporated into God’s eternal realm. And that’s where (hopefully) we will all live.

I believe that we will be quite surprised when we are taken into heaven and learn that what may have seemed our simple ordinary acts of kindness, assistance and forgiveness have a very long (eternal) shelf life. We learn throughout the gospels that what we did for others, we did for God. And while this may not have been our motive for assisting that elderly person across the street, in such gestures we also are creating our own future. What good we do on earth also builds the eternal universe of heaven.   

David M. Thomas, PhD