"There
are not more than 100 people in the world who truly hate the Catholic Church,
but there are millions who hate what they perceive to be the Catholic
Church. ....As a matter of fact, if we Catholics believed all of the
untruths and lies which were said against the Church, we probably would hate
the Church a thousand times more than they do." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
(Gospel Text: Mt 16:13-23)
Jesus went into the region of Caesarea
Philippi
and he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that the Son
of Man is?"
They replied, "Some say John the
Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the
prophets."
He said to them, "But who do you
say that I am?"
Simon Peter said in reply,
"You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"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."
Then he strictly ordered his disciples
to tell no one that he was the Christ.
From that time on, Jesus began to show
his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and
suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests,
and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be
raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began
to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing
shall ever happen to you."
He turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an
obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but
as human beings do."
You would think that it would be hard
for an airplane hurtling through the sky at 600 miles per hour to veer off
course. But actually, it’s quite the opposite. There’s a lot of wind that high
up in the sky! This is why the plane’s course has to be constantly monitored
and corrected.
In today’s Gospel, Peter gets his own
course correction. He has just proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus
praises him for his spiritual insight. But then comes a strong gust of wind to
alter his trajectory: Jesus says that he, the Messiah, will be rejected by the
elders and suffer and die. Peter can’t accept this and immediately disagrees,
prompting Jesus to reprimand him harshly: “You are thinking not as God does but
as human beings do” (Matthew 16:23).
Actually, this isn’t the first time,
and it won’t be the last, when Jesus has to redirect Peter’s faith. And thank
God for that! If it could happen to the great St. Peter, surely we would
welcome it when it happens to us!
God is constantly at work trying to
keep us on course. He is always trying to give us a clearer picture of who he
is so that we don’t lose our way. Sometimes it’s easy, but at other times it’s
hard work as he strips away our misconceptions about him and his mission.
Just like Peter, we won’t get the full
picture overnight. It takes time. It takes persistence. It takes a deepening
relationship with the Lord. But just like Peter, we’ll discover that the
results are well worth the effort. When Jesus shows himself to us, longstanding
bitterness can dissolve. We feel empowered to let go of our anxiety and fear.
We receive grace to overcome sinful habits.
Today, ask the Lord to show himself to
you more clearly. Let him keep you on the right track!
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