Gospel (Mk 8,27-35) - At that time, Jesus left with his disciples towards the villages around Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he questioned his disciples saying: "Who do people say that I am?". And they answered him: «John the Baptist; others say Elijah and others one of the prophets." And he asked them: "But who do you say that I am?". Peter answered him: "You are the Christ." And he strictly ordered them not to speak about him to anyone. And he began to teach them that the Son of man had to suffer greatly, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, be killed and, after three days, be resurrected. He made this speech openly. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But he, turning and looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said: «Get behind me, Satan! Because you do not think according to God, but according to men." Having summoned the crowd together with his disciples, he said to them: «If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Because whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the Gospel's sake will save it."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The evangelical scene takes place in upper Galilee, while Jesus travels through the villages around Caesarea Philippi, a town located very far from Jerusalem, within an almost totally pagan region. The evangelist wants to suggest that Jesus' journey towards the holy city begins from here. From this moment Jesus speaks "openly" with the disciples, without anything holding him back anymore. Along the way, he questions them about the opinion people have formed about him. As can be seen, it is Jesus himself who poses, in the middle of the narrative, the "central question" of the whole Gospel: the problem of his identity. Jesus leaves people's opinions aside and asks the question directly to the disciples: "But who do you say that I am?". Peter answers him openly and unequivocally: "You are the Christ!" (“Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Messiah”, which literally means “the anointed one”). Jesus, faced with the words that recognize him as the Messiah, begins to talk about his passion for him (he will talk about it twice more from this moment). He says that the Son of man will have to suffer much, be reprobated by the elders of the people, by the chief priests and by the scribes; then being killed and resurrected on the third day. Peter, hearing these words, takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke him. He had recognized the incomparable greatness of Jesus so much as to use for him the greatest title he had available, but he could not accept the "end" that Jesus had proposed to them. And it is here that two conceptions of the Messiah collide: that of Peter, linked to strength, to the power that he dominates, to the establishment of a political kingdom; the other, that of Jesus, marked by abasement until death which will end, however, in the resurrection. Jesus, calling the crowd that followed him, says that if anyone wants to become his disciple he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow him. And he adds: whoever loses their life in this way actually saves it. All this will appear clear on the day of Jesus' resurrection. But from now on, for us too, the path of service to the Gospel and to the Lord is the way to live fully according to God.