Anyone who believes in me...will never waver. 1

Jesus and His disciples were in the region of Cesarea Philippi. All of a sudden Jesus put this question to His disciples:  “Who do people say the Son of man is?” (Matt. 16:13).  After listening to various opinions people had about Him Jesus said: “But you, Who do say I am?” Then Simon Peter spoke up and said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Jesus replied: “Peter You are Rock..." (Matt. 16:15-18). One of the skills that everyone would like to acquire is indeed this one: to be as a "rock"; in other words, to be strong! How we admire people who have a strong personality; those who have ideals; those who let themselves become involved without counting the cost! Those who, in spite of difficulties and failures, continue to pursue their goals with courage.

Sin is the root of frailty.  

    But what makes us weak?  A combination of three elements.

1) The first, and the cause of the others,  is the feeling that we sometimes have of not being accepted, the feeling of not being welcomed, the feeling of not being loved...The feeling to be useless, to be a burden on people.  Such an experience as this can produce within us a sort of anxiety, a dark, bad feeling that prevents us from feeling alive. It's like a shadow hanging over us that makes even the most wonderful experiences feel dismal.  

  2) Thus we feel  "insecure".  This sort of insecurity makes us unable to see the reality in its truth, makes us incapable to choose, to decide with freedom, all of these things tear our heart apart.

  3) As a result, we are sad, we suffer a sort of depression, a lack of hope and enthusiasm for life. 

Violence is a sign of frailty.

      Many people who are unable to perceive any way of getting out of that reality become violent.  That's just a way of showing their frailty.  Their violence can be addressed either against other people or against themselves.   With the violence they attempt to refuse, to remove from their conscience the frailty they feel within themselves, without understanding that just violence is the clear sign of their weakness.  The same violence makes things worse and life becomes more and more of a failure.  For many this equation becomes reality: the more weak you are the more violent you become. Arrogance is a mask to hide frailty.

The "Key" To Obtaining Strength
  

    “You are the rock” said Jesus to Peter.  “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 16:19). The power of the keys given to the Church is in the person of Peter! Among the many meanings of these  words of Jesus it is wonderful to discover that among these keys given to us there is a key to strength also.  It is wonderful to discover that through the Church symbolized by Simon Peter, the first Pope, we are given the key strength.

You are the rock!  As in Peter every man and women are freed from weakness because its roots are destroyed: the feeling of not being loved.  Through Jesus’ liberation from sin every human being hears in the depth of his heart the voice of God saying:  “You are my Son, the beloved, My favour rests on you.” (Mk 1:11).

 In the "Source" of our being is the reason for our strength.

      What causes us to be born is not just a simple creation by our parents.  Maybe a couple wanted a child, but not just us! We are unique, we cannot be duplicated.  They didn't ask for us. They received us as a "gift" by God. They were collaborators with God only regarding the physical body, they are responsible only for the physical and material being, but the soul is created directly by God, the deeper dimension of our human being, that makes us just us and no other.  He Himself wanted us. He loved us even before we were created. 

What a wonderful truth!  What a liberation that the value of our lives doesn't depend on even the most lovable creatures... the value of our lives depends on God. That's why we are precious and life is worthy to be lived. 

Every human being is precious because God wanted him/her and with him/her wants to make something incredible! Only sin (God created us free so that we could refuse to collaborate with God ) can destroy this wonderful project He has created for us and want to carry out not without our collaboration. The result would be our eternal confusion, frailty, insecurity, eternal fear.

Truly Jesus can say: Anyone who believes in Me...will never waver!