When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other shore. A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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“The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Jesus was born in a borrowed stable and died in a borrowed tomb. God created the entire world – and everything in it – yet he had nowhere to lay his head during his public ministry, nor anything to call his own.
During his final night on earth, Jesus took what little he had – his own Body and Blood – and handed it over to his disciples in the Eucharist, a sacrifice which Catholics have re-presented at Mass for more than 100,000 Sundays since.
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The poverty of Jesus reminds us of the radical nature and generosity of God, who gives everything away for our own benefit – not only the created world, but even himself.
If God is so generous to us, in what ways can we pay it forward?
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Look for someone who is like Jesus in this world.
The person who has nowhere to lay their head; nowhere to rest their weary heart; no one to help shoulder their burdens.
Then offer to join them on their journey.
“For whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters,” Jesus teaches us, “you do to me.”
When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi 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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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You’ve probably heard the old saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” It reminds me of my own journey, which has led me to priesthood and, thankfully, here to St. Pius X.
Eleven years ago, I stepped into Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, where I was ordained a deacon. There I made three promises: prayer, celibacy, and obedience to my bishop and his successors, promises which I reaffirmed at my priestly ordination a few months later.
Ordination was single step – a critical step – in my ongoing journey of a thousand miles.
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In today’s Gospel, Peter takes a dramatic step in his own faith journey. After professing his belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Lord says to him, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”
This becomes the greatest honor – and most demanding responsibility – of Peter’s life. After the Lord’s death and resurrection, it will be Peter who leads the Church here on earth.
A herculean task if you consider where it all began.
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Peter first met Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He was an ordinary fisherman, who dropped his nets, left his family and his own plans behind, drawn by two simple words:
“Follow me.”
Jesus didn’t appeal to Peter’s head, which too often got in his way, but to his feet:
“Follow me.”
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Sometime after that initial summons, Peter found himself without Jesus as he and the other disciples drifted aimlessly in the night on the same stormy Sea of Galilee.
Suddenly, Jesus appeared to them, walking on the water. He invited Peter to step out of his boat and do the same. Peter needed to use his feet, not his head.
But the second he started to rationalize what was happening, he sank. “O, you of little faith,” Jesus says, “why did you doubt?”
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Later, at the Last Supper, Jesus knelt down to wash those same sinking feet. It became a type of ordination, reminding Peter of the responsibility that would come with the keys the Lord placed in his hands.
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After Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter led the Church until the year 64 AD, when the crazed emperor, Nero, started burning Rome to the ground, blaming Christians for the destruction.
Tradition tells us that, fearing for his own life again, Peter fled the city. Near the city gates, Jesus appeared to him – as he once did to other disciples on the Road to Emmaus – asking, Quo Vadis? … “Where are you going?”
Resolved not to deny his Lord a fourth time, Peter’s feet turned his head and body around, leading him back into the burning city, ready to embrace his destiny.
There’s a church marking that decisive moment in Peter’s life. I’ve prayed there a few times.
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After he’s captured, Peter is condemned to death by crucifixion.
But feeling unworthy of dying like his Lord, Peter asks his executioners for one final request: to turn him upside down.
There, in the heart of Rome, in the center of worldly power, he finally saw the world like his Master – topsy turvy, upside down, right-side up.
Those feet that once accepted the Lord’s call, “Follow me,” were prepared to take their final step.
Those same feet that sank fearfully into the waters of the Sea of Galilee, were turned upward in hope, pointing to where his heart now belonged – the heavens.
There, on that awkward, quickly assembled cross, Peter preached his final sermon not with words, but with his life.
His journey of a thousand miles came to its faithful conclusion. In the words of Saint Paul, he fought the good fight, he ran the race to the finish, he kept the faith.
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Today’s feast of Peter and Paul begs the question, “Where are we on our own journey of faith?”
Are we standing idly on the shores of Galilee waiting for our mission, waiting to be called? Are we sinking fearfully into the turbulent waters of fear? Have we resolved to follow Jesus at any cost, even if that means returning to Rome as it is engulfed in flames?
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“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Here, we journey together. Step by step. Day by day.
Like Peter, may we learn to follow the Lord in the most authentic way possible …
Together.
Feet first.
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Image credits: (1) Reddit (2) Crucifixion of Saint Peter, Caravaggio (3) Greenly
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately Blood and water flowed out.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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The crucifixion of Jesus Christ creates a scene of both gore and glory, encompassing two mysterious truths: human suffering and the greater mystery of divine love.
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Crucifixion was the most brutal form of execution in the ancient world. Those who were crucified did not die because of blood loss caused by the nails driven into their flesh; they died by suffocation.
A man would hang upon the cross for as long he could push himself up with his legs, lifting his chest for a desperate draw of air. Once a person became too exhausted to push anymore, he’d suffocate under his own weight, arms spread open in surrender.
This is why the Roman soldiers broke the legs of the two men hanging next to Jesus; the Jewish feast of Passover was near and they needed to move on. Those criminals would’ve died within a matter of minutes.
The Lord, however, had already passed from this world, but a soldier pierced his side to confirm.
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There we find the source of the Sacraments, the love of God literally poured out as Blood and water.
From the earliest days of the Church – and certainly in John’s Gospel – Christians understood the water flowing from Christ’s side to be the font of baptism. The Blood, the font of Eucharist.
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him and I shall raise him on the last day,” the Lord promises (John 6:53).
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But the Lord’s death on Calvary was also seen in the context of marriage.
In the 4th century, Saint Augustine noted that the flow of blood and water recalls the union between a bride and her groom on their wedding night. Thus, the Cross becomes the fullest expression of Christ’s love for his bride, the Church.
There he gives himself away – arms spread open, embracing all of humanity, washing us clean.
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On this Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we recall that most sacred moment when the Lord, “loved us and gave himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2).
What else are we to do, but, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever” (Psalm 118:1).
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Image credits: (1) (2) Bartolomé Estebán Murillo, Metropolitan Museum of Art (3) Faith Web
