Today's gospel teaches us what theology is all about. Theology is first of all not about a set of doctrines and dogmas, as important as these are, but about the human experience of God or, in the case of Christians, our experience of Jesus.

All the four gospels attest to this - the disciples' experience of Jesus as they reflect on who Jesus was for them during his lifetime, but more especially after he rose from the dead and returned to his Father in heaven.

The “Gospel Meditation” column in the Catholic News is also about theology – our experience of Jesus here in the Caribbean . Week after week lay people as well as priests and religious wrestle with what Jesus means for them and their communities.

In today's gospel Jesus asks two questions; the first: “ Who do people say the Son of Man is ?” The disciples answer, “ Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. ” None of these answers is wrong because these people are all wrestling with the idea of who Jesus is.

They too are doing lectio divina : they think of Jesus and their experience of him; they bring the memories of their religious tradition to the fore – John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, the other prophets; they are wrestling with Jesus' identity.

They may not have come up with the complete answer but at least they were wrestling with it. And that is doing theology.

Jesus then addresses the question to Peter: “ Who do you say I am? ” He demands that Peter do what the “people ” are doing – wrestle with Jesus' identity.

Peter answers correctly - “ You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, ” – even though he himself does not fully know what that means!

The full meaning of who Jesus is will become clearer to Peter after his triple denial and especially after he confronts the empty tomb with the linen cloths strewn on the ground.

All persons, all communities, all cultures that accept the gospel have to wrestle with the question “ Who do you say I am? ” The peoples and cultures of Europe who brought us the gospel wrestled with this question and came up with great theological truths.

We too in the Caribbean are called to wrestle with that question and come up with our own truths about Jesus. This is an enormous task and one that cannot be reduced to “Africanizing” or “Indianizing” the liturgy.

We have to confront deeper questions: Who is Jesus for me in a country in which 30% of the population live under the poverty line, one which is increasingly polarised by race, with rising fundamentalist tendencies, a 50% divorce rate, shocking levels of incest and a rising tide of street children?

At a theology conference some years ago Sr Julie Peters, a clinical psychologist, did a paper on how battered women see Jesus. She discovered that many of the women could not put a face to Jesus (also a man); they could not say clearly who he was in light of the physical and emotional misery they had to bear at the hands of men. These women were struggling with the question “ Who do you say I am? ”

I remember a lectio divina session in Matelot about twenty years ago chaired by Fr Michel de Verteuil. The text was the temptation in the wilderness (Mt 4: 1-11).

Fr Michel asked people to share their experiences of being tempted. Some of the sharing was superficial but one of them stuck in my mind with glaring clarity.

A woman, perhaps in her late sixties, sitting quietly and attentively, decided to break her silence, apparently with some reluctance. Her voice shook a little as she explained that at a parish fiesta she was once in charge of a stall.

It was hard times; little money, so many expenses. She said she kept staring at the money as it came in; her head was like a throbbing heart as she pondered whether to steal the money or not. She was so tortured by the temptation she started to sweat and feel dizzy.

Tempted to the limit she did not give in. She did not steal; she became “good news” for others. Such a woman has a much clearer idea than most of us about what it means to speak about a tempted Lord - part of who Jesus was.

Lord we thank you for throwing the question at us today: “Who do you say I am?” Help us to confront this question in all its difficulty and forgive us for the times we have evaded it, refusing to do the hard reflection faith requires for its profession.

Help us to confront Jesus' question in our own time, in our own culture and among our own people. And after our wrestling is over, may we declare like Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Amen.

Fr Martin Sirju, associate editor, is parish priest of Princes Town .