NOTES:
1] 'Son of man' (Jesus' favourite way of referring to himself) has both earthly & divine thrusts. 2] Peter's "You're the Anointed One" is in contrast with other ideas that Jesus might be a previous 'spiritual giant' returned. 3] Brendan Byrne (The Hospitality of God, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 2000) says Jesus is 'the fulfillment of hopes & promises embedded in the scriptures of Israel'. (A summary of what Peter would mean by 'the Anointed'. 4] Caesarea Philippi is a centre of Roman & Herodian rule. Jesus is on about God's Rule. 'Church' means a gathering together of God's people, not a structure.

WARMING UP: If we could 'bring back' some spiritual giant from the past (not Jesus!) who would it be?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything this week?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

13-16    Are we as clear in our mind as we'd like to be / need to be about who Jesus is? Why might some think Jesus was John Baptist back from the dead? Elijah? Jeremiah? Another 'one of the prophets'? Why might Jesus choose to use 'son of man' (= humanity) about himself? Can we 'unpack' that term? What does 'Anointed' ( = Christ) mean to us? In what way is Jesus 'son of the living God'? What's the significance of Peter describing God as 'living'?

17-19    In calling Peter 'blessed' Jesus is congratulating him on his discernment. Do we ever feel 'blessed'? What does it mean to be 'blessed' by God? What do we mean when we sing or say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" in the liturgy? Do we ever feel God's congratulating us for some understanding we have? Or is God just a critic, inspector, fault finder? Does Jesus' use of 'blessed' raise any questions about our common use of 'bless you', 'God bless', etc.?

Might what Jesus says to Peter be a warning to us not to rely on education, science, etc. to give us all the answers we need in life? How resistant are we to what 'our Father in heaven' reveals to us? Could it have anything to do with the way we tend to think of heaven as being remote from what happens here on earth? Where is heaven, anyway, & what goes on there? Are the 'keys of God's Rule' (= kingdom of heaven) more a matter of access, or control? Which gives a more positive spin to what Jesus is on about? Are we / our church better at binding or loosing? More practised at locking people out of heaven than opening the 'door' for them to enter? How can we use the 'keys' of God's Rule to open things up a lot more for people?

20        Why might Jesus swear the disciples to secrecy? Isn't that a contradiction of his mission on earth? What's he up to?