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Gospel: Mark 8: 27-33
Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?”
They said in reply,
“John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets.”
And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said to him in reply,
“You are the Christ.”
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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In this tiny Gospel passage, Peter experiences the highest high … and the lowest low.
One moment he boldly proclaims that Jesus is the “Christ.”
The next, Jesus turns around and calls him, “Satan.”
Why such a dramatic change?
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Peter’s confession of faith stirred a desire in Jesus to share more of his divine plan with his disciples. He is not the political savior that the disciples secretly hoped he’d be. Rather, “the Son of Man must suffer greatly… and be killed,” he tells them.
Peter’s dreams of glory are being shattered right in front of him. He has already left his home, his family, and his job in order to follow Jesus. And now it seems it’s all ending in death.
The fame, the power, and the prestige were a pipe dream. Dumbfounded, Peter says to Jesus, “That cannot be!”
In trying to prevent God’s divine will from unfolding, Peter becomes like Satan – an obstacle; a stumbling block.
So, Jesus corrects Peter, telling him to, “get behind” him. This gesture of standing behind Jesus implies that, even when Peter doesn’t understand, he must learn how to follow.
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At times we all shriek from accepting God’s will. We protest. Or stand in the way.
A malignant diagnosis, a closed door, a winding path we never thought we’d walk may, in fact, be where the Lord is leading us… but like Peter we don’t always understand… and we certainly don’t want to accept it.
What Peter will learn after the resurrection is something we all must – that God’s path, although difficult at times, leads to life in abundance. Think of the empty tomb.
Or that great prophecy from Isaiah: “I will lead the blind on their journey. By paths unknown I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them and make crooked ways straight.”
The challenge is learning how to be like Peter, how to “get behind” Jesus and follow him.
What might that look like for me today?
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Image credits: (1) The Archdiocese of Malta, February 16 (2) Twitter, James Martin, SJ (3) National Catholic Register