Tradition

“Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’” (Luke 9:22).

Martyrdom of Japanese Christians (Hosokawa)

My family and I recently travelled to Japan.  This was a very interesting trip for us – not only because we very very rarely travel overseas, but because the place we travelled to was very very different from the place we had travelled from.

One of the biggest differences was that this country, Japan, was not really a predominantly Christian country.  In fact, Christianity was a small minority in that country.  We were still able to attend Holy Mass and visit a church or two, but there were not very many churches and not very much of a focus on the Christian feasts, like Christmas – although the commerciality of the feast was observed to a very small degree…

Historically, Japan was very unwelcoming to Christians.  The predominant religions of Shintoism and Buddhism are not monotheistic and do not accept the premise that there is one true God, as Christianity demands.  At one point in history – in the sixteenth century, Christian missionaries were expelled from the country altogether…

In 1865, the Japanese government allowed Christian missionaries to return to the country.  And when they did return, they returned to a country that had been persecuting Christians for about 250 years.  There were some Christians who lived in a small village near Nagasaki called, Urakami, and when the French Priest, Bernard Thadee Petitjean finally arrived in the village, they asked him three questions – where is your wife (Catholic priests had no wives)?  Do you have a mother in Heaven (the Blessed Virgin)? And, do you follow the bishop dressed in white (the Pope in Rome)?  This was the way that they could verify the priest as a Catholic priest, because their priest – from those who had been persecuted to death, told them to ask these three questions when the priests returned.  And for this, they passed down this tradition in asking this for two and a half centuries, so that they would be prepared for the return of priests…

Christ also knew how to prepare the apostles…

“Now it happened that as he was praying alone the disciples were with him; and he asked them, ‘Who do the people say that I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist; but others say, Elijah; and others, that one of the old prophets has risen.’ And he said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’” (Luke 9:18-22).

In much the same way, Christ was asking the questions that the Jewish people had been asking for thousands of years in relation to the Messiah, and He was doing this to highlight – for the apostles – what they already knew.  But they needed to be BRAVE and actually admit what they thought…  And Saint Simon Peter was the brave one here.  And today, I pray for the courage of this imperfect Saint, who denied His God three times before the cock crew, because in that moment of courage when, “Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’” (Luke 9:22), how God loved Him in that moment!

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.