Word to the Wise
Thursday, August 4, 2022 - Thursday in the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jer 31:31-34 and Matt 16:13-23]"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, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." [Matthew] "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." [Matthew]
AUGUST 4 ST, JOHN VIANNEY
Both the passages quoted above are from the gospel scripture for today. The first is Jesus' response to Peter's profession of faith when Jesus says to the disciples: "Who do you say that I am?" Peter responded: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." So far, so good! But when Jesus teaches and predicts his suffering and death in Jerusalem, Peter refuses to believe this will happen. Jesus responds with the second quotation above.
Poor Peter! But the cost of leadership can be steep. It is one thing to focus on the power given in the position and entirely another to focus on the person who is in the position. Peter had his own notions of what his profession of faith meant, which did not include what Jesus predicted about his own [Jesus'] future. Jesus had to correct those notions. Peter was challenged to think as God does and not as human beings do!
Can we "think as God does?" Not long after Jesus speaks of the responsibility he is giving to Peter, he also gives similar responsibility to the community! [Matt. 18:18] Do we, like Peter, have our own notions about what God can and cannot do? Do we, like Peter, become "stumbling blocks" in the way of Jesus? The power of discipleship requires first of all an acknowledgment of our own limitations and recognition that God can work through those to accomplish great things. AMEN