Thursday, September 1, 2011

Think as God Thinks

21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “God forbid, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. (Matthew 16)


I imagine what Jesus must have felt at this time.  He felt rejected by the scribes and the Pharisees as a Messianic impostor and the Romans as a threat,  the people and his disciples could not understand him and now, Peter suddenly turned against him! Jesus must have felt rejected by all.  Peter is not to be blamed.  Peter is just consoling Christ.  As a leader of the apostles, he wanted his master to be safe-- that nothing may harm him.  And he invokes the name of God. “God forbid, Lord!” he said. He seems to be doing an act of mercy --- consoling the sorrowing in the name of God.

However, Jesus calls him 'Satan'.  If we could recall, it was the same statement as he rebuked Satan during his temptation in the desert.  Get behind me, Satan!  Such a strong statement to a disciple who initially believes in him and now consoling him.  Peter must be thinking that he is doing a good thing in the name of God but in fact,  he is doing a thing contrary to the will of God.

Peter becomes a tempter like Satan in the sense that  God wills that Jesus should suffer but he contradicts it.  He does not want Jesus to suffer.  So, Peter unwillfully tempts Jesus not to obtain salvation for all men through suffering.  He becomes a stumbling block for Jesus and Jesus sees in him not his beloved apostle but Satan.

 How quick is Peter's change of heart!  In the last Sunday's gospel, he professed his faith in him as the Messiah.  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”(Matthew 16:16) And Peter calls him as a Rock on which his Church will be built.  After that is this Sunday's gospel wherein, Jesus foretells his passion and death.  In few minutes or even less, Jesus cursed Peter after giving him his blessing. 

In the same way, we are like Peter, who quickly closes our hearts to him after opening it to him fully.  We easily commit sins after doing good things.  We sometimes sin unwillingly like Peter.  Sometimes, we do things which we sometimes think as good but in itself contrary to God's will.  For example, we help the poor according to our own method but it is not according to what God wants.  Another example would be consoling others and telling them things which in fact making things worse.  We might reason out that we cannot sin because we do not have full knowledge but the effect of the sin is actually great and sometimes even greater than mortal sins.  Even greater because we might lead a person to sin.

For example, the advice that you might give to others which is good but actually out of context or cannot give a person a concrete solution might be followed.  The problem may get worse and may affect certain people as well.  And the effect of what you did may cause greater harm in the process, basically like a chain reaction producing infinite bad effects--- and this is because of your unmindful advice.

Let us also take the example of the story of Anna Manalastas in the popular TV series '100 Days to Heaven'.  She may believe that she is doing a right thing like saying harsh words to her employees in order for them to learn.  But she actually bring harm which produces a chain of evil effects to a lot of people.  Later will she knew that the 'cycle of rejection' continues and she finds herself on a difficult mission to stop it.

If we look at ourselves deeper, we might see how frightening are the effects of our actions might be.  Our little unmindful word or action causes a chain of ugly effects.  But we must not lose hope.  Peter remained close to Christ even though his thinking contrary to the will of God continues.  Peter contradicts Jesus' hatred for violence when he cut a soldier's ear during Jesus' arrest in the garden of Gethsemane.  He promised that he will be with Christ and die for him but he denied him thrice. Later even after Jesus' ascension, he ignored Jesus instructions to allow Gentiles to be one with the People of God.  But he remained the Rock which our Church stood.  In the midst of his frailty, he obtained strength to lead the God's holy people.

In the midst of our sins let us pray: Lord, I admit that I commonly think not according to your ways, I think not according to what you think. I acknowledge my frailty. So help me Lord.   Let me be submissive to your ways like a balloon blown by the wind to where the wind wills it to be.  Although I can never understand your will, help me to follow you.  May I never contradict your will.  In times that i do so, forgive me and let me stand up again with the strength of your Spirit.


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