I was left dismayed and surprised when I first heard this gospel! What did we just hear Jesus say to Peter? I have always seen Peter as the rock, the first pope of our Church, and now what does Jesus say to Peter? Get behind me Satan?
The artist Andy Warhol once said that everybody is famous for 15 minutes. However, we see that this is not necessarily true in the gospel today. Last week in the gospel of Matthew Peter answered the one million dollar question. Jesus asked him- “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answers; “You are the messiah, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus continues- “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church.” In the gospel for today, which is only six verses from last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus says to Peter: “get behind me Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
It seems that Peter is only famous for about fifteen seconds. Why does Jesus say this? Father Rick talks about this in his article in the bulletin. Let us take a look at what Jesus said. He had just told the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly and be killed. How would we react if we were in Peter’s place, and we heard these confusing words from Jesus?
The natural human response from Peter was, “God forbid, Lord. No such thing shall ever happen to you!” We are all guilty of thinking like human beings because that is who we are. It is pretty hard to think like God. But sometimes we get glimpses, those times, those insights that only come from God, Just like Peter who knew who Jesus Was, the Son of the living God.
Peter was flawed, was not perfect just as we are flawed and not perfect. Of course all good Christians strive for that perfection by aiming to be Holy right? We do have those moments when we make a discovery about something that puzzled us in our faith, or in scripture just like today, and we have an AH-HA moment! Some years back, and I won’t say how many, I had come to look at Peter, yes-as our first pope, but I, through my human connection with him, looked at him as being imperfect and flawed as I was imperfect and flawed.. After all, he did deny Jesus three times. How many times have we done the same? However, my AH-HA moment was when I heard a homily on Peter as a cracked rock.
If Peter was perfect and not flawed he would be unable to see the light of Jesus. But due that he is cracked, flawed and imperfect as it were, he learned to see the light of Jesus shine through. The same is for us. And when this light shines through the cracks in our lives, we get excited and anxious in letting others know. This is what we heard in our first reading from Jeremiah. In the want to do God’s will, Jeremiah cannot help but be the mouthpiece for God’s words. This is what the love for Jesus does to us!!
Well, if you are like me, I am confused from time to time. There are many times that I have looked for one of those AH-HA moments with this. (Point to the crucifix) How does all this work? Why the cross? How could the Father allow his Son to be crucified? Why this way? Sound familiar? Ultimately it is a mystery but we can try to understand how God thinks even when we know that we will not fully understand. And that is O.K.
What about carrying our cross and following Jesus? How do we do this if we don’t fully understand the mystery of the cross and how it all works? Remember we are imperfect, we are flawed, so what does this command really mean?
It means that sometimes doing the will of God is hard and it involves suffering in one way, shape, or form. It means that sometimes following Jesus is hard, a challenge for us. It means that loving sometimes demands sacrifice.
It means that sometimes following the example and teaching of Jesus is a real challenge.
So many here today are already carrying a cross. I know that if we could see each other’s crosses we would be humbled and in awe. You have denied yourself a thousand times over and have done the will of God by raising a family and all the personal sacrifice that goes with that. You have gone without so that your
children could have what you did not have.
You have endured the hardships of supporting, in many different ways, that family member or friend in their struggle with an addiction. You have put up with the highs and the lows, the ups and the downs of the command of Jesus for us to love. Or you might be dealing with that addiction yourself and holding on trying to walk the straight line.
You are a teenager and you have determined, hopefully, to live a life of virtue and chastity when it seems to you that no one else is. And you think you may pay a price for that. You will sacrifice popularity and hanging with the crowd that calls themselves “COOL” at least that is the word we used in my day, “COOL”
You have devoted what seems to be your life, carrying for that physically or mentally challenged child or infirm, elderly parent because it is simply the right thing to do and you do it out of love. This scenario I witness every Sunday. There is one whom I minister to by being and ear and bringing communion to her. I minister to her and in turn she ministers to a lifelong friend who is living with her. She is his only caretaker and her dear friend is in very bad health, so bad that he will most likely pass away soon. Talk about crosses and doing out of love!!
You might be carrying around a hurt so deep and personal for years and even decades and you have never spoken a word about it, even when there has been times that you have wanted to get angry, to show revenge and rage!. But you have resisted and turned the other cheek and responded with love.
How will our stories end? Where will carrying our crosses lead us? Maybe through more suffering, maybe even death! But I know how this story ends! (Point to the crucifix) Suffering is conquered by joy. Death is conquered by life. Darkness is conquered by light. (Remember that cracked rock) Crucifixion is conquered by resurrection.
Our faith tells us that despite our suffering and sacrifices, our stories will end the same way if we pick up our own crosses and follow Jesus. As St Paul says in our second reading to the Romans: “Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” The best way to transform our lives is to receive Jesus’ body and blood in the Eucharist. You see my sisters and brothers,through the cracks in our lives we are offered Jesus himself to live within us and when we allow this to happen we do see the light of Jesus which is perfection shining on and in us.