There is only one question in all of human history that every single person has to answer: “But who do you say that I am?” No matter who you are or where you came from, this is the only question that matters because it defines the universe. It defines the lives of every single human being who has walked in the kingdom of man. And it defines the eternity of every single life that has crossed into the kingdom of heaven.
This question posed by Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 16:15 (which is also recorded in Mark 8:29 and Luke 9:20) is now posed to you: Who do you say that He is? And what do you tell others about Him? Do you say that He was one of the prophets? Do you say that He was a moral leader? Or are you able to answer as Peter did: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16).
Now, more than ever, we live in a world of crippling disbelief. We not only live among those who reject God altogether, but those who do not understand what they profess about God. Even for those of us who know and believe in Him, the horror of our sins and the sad state of our all-too-human forgetfulness are before us always.
That is why we need a time of authentic renewal; a time filled with deep, quiet prayer; a time saturated with solemn study; a time given to specific works of charity; a time that helps us to focus on what means to say “I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”