Find Out What Other Religions Believe About Jesus

“Who do you say that I am? Who is Jesus to you?”

At every Mass, we profess the Creed, and as we profess the Creed today, I want you to pay attention to it because that is our belief through Jesus given to us and revealed to us through the Catholic Church.

This Gospel is very fascinating today because Jesus goes to Caesarea Philippi. I didn’t know much about this until I was in the Holy Land. Caesarea Philippi is about a three-day journey north of the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River flows up there from this area. When you go to Caesarea Philippi, there is a cave within this kind of natural grotto; at the cave entrance, there’s a pool of water, and that pool is a spring that goes down thousands of feet. That place was known also as Banias. It was a place where they worshipped the god called Pan. That is where we get the idea of Peter Pan. Pan was the half man/half goat, and they worshipped Pan, Zeus, and other gods. They didn’t believe in one God. They believed in many gods.

It was fascinating about this plea that they called the water; the phrase in the Gospel today is “The Gates of the Netherworld.” They called the pool the Gates of the Netherworld because they believed that evil was profound, and so that was the Gate of the Netherworld. Anything below that water was where evil could be. They also believed that if they made sacrifices there, they could discover if the gods approved them. They would make animal sacrifices by taking the animals and throwing them into this pool,

The Gates of the Netherworld, in the spring, and they would sink. A river flowed from it; if the gods accepted their sacrifice, the water would be clear. If the gods didn’t accept their sacrifice, the water would become red with blood. They also did child sacrifices there and see what would happen.

So, the Gates of the Netherworld is pretty essential. This Grotto, this stone entryway, had carvings in the stone that added to all the different gods that they worshipped.

Jesus took His disciples there on purpose for that day. He took them to the place where they were making sacrifices to idols, and it was in that place that He said to them, “Who do people say that the Son of man is?” Then we heard some of the answers today. Some thought He was a prophet; some thought He was Moses or Elijah coming back from the dead, and they were getting it wrong. So, Jesus said to His disciples, “Well, who do you say that I am?” They kept guessing, and finally, Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of God.”  So, among all those other gods, beliefs, and religions, Peter got it right. “You are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus then tells Peter, “You are my rock, and upon my rock, I will build my church, and the Gates of the Netherworld will not destroy it.” So, all these other beliefs will not destroy our belief in Jesus.

I want to make a few connections between the First Reading and the Gospel because they are profound. The first reading from Isaiah says, “I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder.”  Then we hear in the Gospel very clearly, “I will give you the keys to the church. Whatever you bind in heaven will be bound on earth.”

First reading, “When he opens, no one will shut, and when he shuts, no one will open.” Finally, we get this image of the peg in the sure spot, and Jesus says, “You are my rock.” You are the most secure thing we can have in this world, “and upon you, I will build my church.”

This reading is where we get the idea of Papal Primacy that we are given this Holy Father as our head of the church and that lineage from Peter and that Jesus is giving the promise of the Holy Spirit and saying that nothing will take it away in this church. This church will survive any evil that you will see in the world. I want you to think about who you believe the son of man is.

I was looking up to see what other religions believe. Many other religions acknowledge that Jesus existed but are not on the same page as us. The Muslims say that no one can be a Muslim unless they believe in the prophet Jesus. They believe He’s a prophet but deny that He was the Son of God.

The Jewish people believe that Jesus was Mary’s son. So, the Jews also believe in Jesus, but they believe He was a teacher, a rabbi, that He had many disciples, that He performed miracles, claimed to be the Messiah, and was crucified on the cross. Some followers also believe that He was raised from the dead, but they do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

The Baha’i and some Eastern religions say He was a wise teacher with a divine-human nature, worked miracles, and was crucified and resurrected. Hindus believe that He was a holy man, a wise teacher.

Buddhists believe Jesus was an enlightened man and also a wise teacher, and kind of like the New Age thought of our day, people believe there’s a Jesus but that He’s probably a wise moral teacher. For us, we believe so much more. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We believe that He is one with the Father. We believe He comes every Sunday in the Bread and Wine, transforming and consecrating into His very Body and Blood.

Jesus came into this earth so He could suffer and die and rise. He allowed Himself to be crucified because we could finally see someone innocent on the cross. Someone who was wholly the Son of God who would allow that to happen because He never wanted to see another sacrifice ever again.

We’ll discuss the upcoming November election for the next few months. There have been 65 million child sacrifices in our country. As we see what that was back in the Cave of Pan, we experience today. Jesus came to destroy death. Jesus came because He no longer wants anyone, any child, any person, to be sacrificed.

As we come together today to receive our very body and blood, when I hold up the host, His Body, and Blood, which are separated, He shows us who He is. He shows us that He wants to be the one to take on the sins of the world.

I think it’s all good to ask ourselves or let Jesus ask us, “Who do you say that I am?” I like too that He says that only the Father can reveal this is not flesh and blood. So, if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, ask the Father to say, “Father, who do you say that He is? Let me come to discover Him.” It will change everything in us, and He will be the meaning of our lives. The one that we want to give our lives to and for.