Today the Gospel presents two questions posed by Jesus: “Who do the crowds say that I am?”and, “But who do you say that I am?” In my opinion and own experience, these are two very challenging questions to answer! My seven-year-old asked me a couple of days ago: Why is Jesus so famous? (this was another challenging question), followed by: Is it possible that another person is more famous than God?. Wow! I do know how hard these questions are! Therefore, I will not attempt to answer them today. I want to focus my reflection on how important it is to ask questions, instead.

At my work, I have to constantly ask questions to help my students move one step further in their learning process. I have seen that the formulation and answer to questions depend on the skills of the students. I have witnessed that when students are at the beginning of understanding a new concept, a question with a “yes/no” answer turns out to be very insightful. As the understanding deepens, however, a more insightful answer is “it depends”. It does require a higher level of sophistication to feel comfortable with ambiguity and with the realization that ignorance (we do not know yet) could be insightful.

Recently I have been doing a soul searching process that has helped me to develop stronger roots in my life. Many of the questions I have asked myself, have left me with the “it depends” answer. My reflection on those questions also left me with a sense of peace and tranquility because I realized I was brave enough to ask myself those questions. And because the “it depends” answer gave me a sense of freedom and accomplishment I needed.

I wonder whether you, dear reader, would have a question you would like to ask yourself. Perhaps posing the question is the first step to delve into an answer. And perhaps the greatest value would be the courage to state the question.

My prayer today is for all of us who need to ask questions, and to be wise and humble in the process.