We often express our knowledge of God based on our experiences with Him. To a prisoner, God is the one who set prisoners free; to the sick, He is a healer; to the hungry, He is the bread of life; to the weak, He is their strength… our knowledge and experience of God differs. However, the penny catechism book helps us to understand God as “A supreme being who alone exist of himself and he is infinite in all perfection,”but who is God to you? In the first reading, Isaiah presents God to us as one who humbles the proud and exalt the lowly by removing Shebna from his position of a leader and replacing him with Eliakim. Shebna is one of Hezekiah’s chief assistants and God sent a message to him through the prophet Isaiah, saying, “I will thrust you from your office, and you will be cast down from your station” (Is. 22:19). Shebna was a leader who had a high and honorable office, yet he used it to glorify himself, God promised to dethrone himfor this as well asfor his pride, wickedness and lack of obedience to God’s precepts, and God raised up a lowly servant Eliakim to His throne.
God said, “In that day, I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will cloth him with your robe, and will bind your belt on him and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitant of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah” (vv.20-21). Eliakim was elevated instead of Shebna, as the Lord symbolically clothed him with Shebna’s robe and sash, that powers and authorities were conferred on him. The Lord said, “And I will place on his shoulder the keys of the house of David; and he shall open and none shall shut and shall shut and none shall open…” (v.22). The humility of Eliakim brought him exaltation that he became a father and a leader figure to the house of Judah, representing guidance and care.The keys placed upon his shoulder symbolizes the role of gatekeeper and his responsibility over the house of David, of opening the house in the morning, closing it at night, and controlling access to the royal presence.

In the Gospel, Matthew presents Christ to us as a teacher, who has taught his students for three years in his public ministry, after which He presents to them an examination of His personality to test their knowledge. He carried out this test of knowledge with two questions: firstly, He asked, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” (Mt. 16:13).It was a general question and so he got general response, “Some say John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (v.14). He asked the second question and made it particular. He said, “But who do you say that I am?” (v.15).It was a personal question that kept the apostles silent for some time, to ponder on the personality of Christ to them. Similarly, we can have some silence and ask ourselves, “Who is Christ to us?” Is it just the general opinion we have known about him or do we have our personal experience with him or one-on-one encounter with Him? Who is Christ to you? While the other Apostles remained silent, it was Peter who spoke up, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v.16).
In response Christ told him, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (v.17). This knowledge of Peter about Christ singled him out among other disciples, of which led to his role as leader and as the first pope of the Church. From this moment, the promise of God to Eliakim that He will put on his shoulder the keys of the house of David and when he shall open, none shall shut and vice versa,- this same promise is reenacted in the life of Peter when Christ said, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loosed on earth, shall be loosed in heaven” (v.19).In this role of leadership and authority, Peter opened the gate for three thousand people at Pentecost (Acts 2). Although, he will initially resist of opening the gates to the Gentiles, God will persuade him to admit the Gentile Centurion (Acts 10), and Peter will become the spokesperson to the Council of Jerusalem to keep the gates open to Gentiles (Acts 15). The authority and leadership of Eliakim and Peter still continues in different degrees of the church, especially when keys are symbolically given to parish priest on the day of installation. It is a reminder of our duty as door keeper or gatemen to allow the people access God.
Importantly, God rewards those who serve in humility and use their authority for the good of others. Like Eliakim and Peter, we should always strike a balance between authority as a leader and humility. We should hold positions of honor while we remain grounded in humility, guiding and caring for others entrusted to us. St. Paul in the second reading reminds us of the humility required before God’s immense wisdom and knowledge as he expresses it as something beyond his comprehension when he said, “O the depth of the riches and knowledge of the wisdom of God” (Rm 11:36). He imagined the greatness of God; he imagines the depth of God and how deep is his wisdom and knowledge. He imagined like the psalmist when it says, “How great is your name O Lord, through all the earth” (Ps 8:1). He further asked, “For who has known the mind of God, or who has been his counsellor?” (Rm 11:34).Invariably, our knowledge of God is limited. I recall an encounter with a friend, who left the Roman Catholic faith for other denomination, while discussing, he said, “He could not comprehend some of the doctrines of the Catholic Church that was his reason for leaving.”
Being curious, I asked him; have you been able to comprehend all the doctrines and teachings about God in your present Church? No, was his response, then I told him, “Being mortals, the moment you know everything about God, then, He ceases to be God. What you are lacking is faith.” Put differently, the knowledge of God is so deep that as human, we cannot fathom his greatness, but he reveals himself to those who seek him in truth, with a humble and contrite heart like Eliakim. The fullness of this revelation is in Jesus Christ that is why He ask us today as individuals, “Who do you say that I am?” Who is Christ to you? How do you perceive your relationship with Him? The silence of the Apostles gives room to your response. Happy Sunday!
• Rev. Fr. Ken Dogbo, OSJ is a priest of the Oblates of St. Joseph.