Ordinary Time - Week 22a
The Cross in our lives
(From Conversation with God, Fernandez Carvajal)The Gospel of the Mass describes the events that take place immediately after Peter's confession of Christ's divinity at Caesarea Philippi. Jesus goes on to say that Peter is to be the foundation of his Church, but then begins to explain to his followers that he has to go up to Jerusalem and there suffer many things at the hands of the Jews, and finally die in order to rise on the third day.
The Apostles didn't understand this sort of talk at all, because they still thought of the Kingdom of God in political terms only. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying ?God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.' Carried away by his great love for his Master, Simon tried to dissuade Jesus from the way of the Cross, not yet understanding the immense benefit it was to be for mankind and how it would be the supreme sign of God's love for us. Peter reasoned in a human fashion, says Saint John Chrysostom, and concluded that all Christ's talk of his Passion and Death were demeaning and unbecoming for him.
Peter views Christ's earthly mission far too humanly, and so fails to realize that it was manifestly the will of God that the Redemption would be wrought through the Cross, and that there was no more suitable way to rescue us from our misery. Our Lord answers his disciple with great vehemence, just as he did the tempter in the desert: Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.
In Caesarea Peter had spoken under the impulse of the Holy Spirit; he now speaks from a totally materialistic perspective. The notion that the Cross, mortification, sacrifice, are in some way good and a means of salvation, will always strike a discordant note with people who, like Saint Peter on this occasion, view things from a worldly point of view. Saint Paul had to warn the early Christians about people who live as enemies of the cross of Christ Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
If we reason only in materialistic terms it is difficult for us to appreciate that pain and suffering, or indeed any thing that requires an effort, can be worth while. On the one hand, we know by experience that the difficulties we encounter on our way can serve to purify and strengthen us and make us better. And yet it is clear that our nature of itself abhors suffering: we all aspire to happiness. The fear of pain, above all if it is severe or persistent, is a deeply rooted instinct is us, and our first reaction in the face of something hard or difficult is to run away. That is why we find the Christian practice of penance difficult: we never find it easy, and no matter how hard we work at it we never manage to get accustomed to it.
Faith enables us to see and realize that without sacrifice the soul encounters no true love, no genuine joy, no lasting purification and no possession of God. The path to holiness passes through the Cross, and all apostolate is based upon it. It is the living book in which we learn definitively who we are and how we ought to behave. This book is always open before us. Every day we have to approach and read it. And in it we learn who Christ is, the greatness of his love for us, and how we are to follow him. Any one who looks for God without sacrifice, without the Cross, will never find him.