As you might remember from last weekend’s gospel passage, Peter was challenged by Jesus about his lack of faith. This week, another narrative, and more problems for Peter, whom Jesus had just named the leader of the church! When Jesus starts to share the reality of his Messiahship in other words that he would suffer and eventually die – Peter is having none of it! In short he tells Jesus it will never happen on his watch.
However Peter was in for a shock when Jesus denounces him, saying he is seeing things from a human point of view, not from God’s. It isn’t hard to sympathize with Peter’s confusion. You can almost hear him saying to Jesus … ‘what do you want me to do?’
Jesus is clear in his response: to be faithful to him, the disciples must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him.
Jesus is outlining what is expected of someone who follows his path. We have to put other people first and ourselves second; few of us find this something that comes naturally. We live in a world where power, sex, and money seem to be the only things that matter in life. It is as if when we have these things, we have everything that really matters. However, in following the way of Christ we learn time after time that what really matters is faith, relationship, and community. Of course these are not all we need, but they enable life to have meaning and purpose. We will never be satisfied with enough power, enough sex, enough money, but if we put our energy into our faith, our relationships, and building community we will find fulfilment and joy.
Fr Stephen Rowe