Who is Christ truly? This question was first posed by our Lord Himself to the Pharisees: "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son, is He?" (Matt. 22:42). Christ wants to show that the Pharisees were waiting for the Messiah as the one who would lead his people to earthly glory, thereby justifying them for the way they believed and lived. Thus, they could not conceive that the Messiah's descent from David's generation would leave room for other peoples to accept Him as their own God and Saviour. The Pharisees wanted Christ exclusively for themselves and the Israelite people. But Christ teaches us that the Son of God became man, precisely so that He would not belong exclusively to one people, but to become the beginning so that all people, regardless of origin and other characteristics, could become children of God.

This question is also relevant to us today. Most people, of course, consider Christ as a special personality, who taught love and contributed to society, who founded a religion, through which the human person finds comfort in the difficult moments of their life, allows them to rejoice in customs and traditions, and also to receive financial and social help and support. Others see bishops, priests and monks as successors of Christ, considering them as persons connected to the past and holding communities of believers together, as intermediaries between God and man. Others declare themselves atheists, and for them Christ is not the God-man, because for them there is no God. Thus, they reduce Christ to a philosophical ideal, to morality, or they merely see Him as a revolutionary figure whose charm has passed.
 
But Christ is and will remain present in the life of the world. And He will continue to be a "sign of controversy", according to the words of the prophet Simeon the God-receiver who held the Christ child in his arms during the Forty-day presentation in the Temple. These words, in the Gospel and in the life of the Church will constantly remind us of who He can become for us.  

Christ the God-man is our redeemer. We do not believe in an idea, in a sermon, in a teaching about God, but in God Himself, who is a person, and has assumed human substance and leads us to deification, to eternal communion with Him in the life of the Church. But for this path to become a reality, we need to put aside two prevailing beliefs. First, “I don't see God", and second, "God is a creation of the human mind." Some reject God because they identify truth with only what our senses know, and they use reason alone as the basis for approaching it. They forget that the human person is not only a mind, but also a heart. And they do not see that there is beauty that is born through art, music, speech, nature itself, which is not explained by the power of reason, but only through wisdom and the inspiration that God has given to the world and to the human person.

Christ did not promise us power and authority, as the Pharisees believed. Martyrdom was and is the path to which we are called to follow, if we accept Him. Martyrdom from the attacks of doubtful thoughts and the challenges posed by the secular spirit. From people's hatred of Him and the transfer of that hatred to us. From the difficulty we face emotionally, when we want to choose the path of forgiveness. From the onslaughts of death, in all its forms. But this martyrdom contains the joy of His support, of enlightenment, of His presence, which enables us to endure.
And with Him we will walk toward our own resurrection.