21st Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
"You are the Messiah,"..."the Son of the living God!"
Lectionary Readings for 21st Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/21st-sunday-a.html
This statement and confession by Peter was praised by Jesus because Peter exclaimed it not of his own accord but as inspired by the Spirit of God. We know that Peter is human and also has its faults. But despite all his faults and all his defects of personality and character, Jesus still chose him to be the "rock" by which the Church would be built. It was not because of Peter's merits then that Jesus chose him but because Peter had faith in Jesus as the Messiah and as the One who would save man from his sins.
Peter represents the papal leadership in our Church. Like Peter, there are popes in our history who have committed many mistakes and may even have caused shame to the Church because of their deeds. But this is because the Church is human and all its leaders, despite their being chosen by God are also human and can be subject to temptation and fall into sin. What is important though is that we continue to believe that God-in-Jesus has seen in the seat of Peter, the very foundation by which the Church would follow his teaching. We therefore are called to have the same faith in a leadership that was founded by Jesus Himself.
And what about the "Peter" in us? How is the level of our faith in Christ? There may be times when we understandably feel that our faith is weak and we trust in many other things other than God. When we do so, let us not forget that it is by the Spirit of God that Peter was able to confess that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Savior who is to save us from our sins. Therefore, if we pray for the gift of faith and genuine trust in God, we shall truly not forget that it is in God that we can really have genuine faith in the teachings of Jesus. The Spirit will strengthen us and help us to place our trust where it should really be placed.
Our level of trust in Jesus as the Savior shall grow and mature as we journey like Peter, who after he confessed in the Spirit that Jesus was the Christ, eventually learned by experience that that confession will be tested very much when Jesus became powerless in his eyes and was captured by the Roman authorities under the instigation of the Jewish religious authorities. We in our time will also be tested after we truly confess that Christ is our Savior. We will be tested many times over through various experiences which will make Christ's message appear ridiculous to us or the Catholic faith as something negative and scandalous. But we must not lose faith for if we cry out to the Lord to help our unbelief, and repent of our sinfulness, we will be restored in our faith in Christ. Each time that we are restored in our faith and in our relationship to Christ (like Peter was), we will be called to strengthen our brothers and sisters in the faith context we are living in: the family, the workplace, the parish or the community.
Lectionary Readings for 21st Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/21st-sunday-a.html
This statement and confession by Peter was praised by Jesus because Peter exclaimed it not of his own accord but as inspired by the Spirit of God. We know that Peter is human and also has its faults. But despite all his faults and all his defects of personality and character, Jesus still chose him to be the "rock" by which the Church would be built. It was not because of Peter's merits then that Jesus chose him but because Peter had faith in Jesus as the Messiah and as the One who would save man from his sins.
Peter represents the papal leadership in our Church. Like Peter, there are popes in our history who have committed many mistakes and may even have caused shame to the Church because of their deeds. But this is because the Church is human and all its leaders, despite their being chosen by God are also human and can be subject to temptation and fall into sin. What is important though is that we continue to believe that God-in-Jesus has seen in the seat of Peter, the very foundation by which the Church would follow his teaching. We therefore are called to have the same faith in a leadership that was founded by Jesus Himself.
And what about the "Peter" in us? How is the level of our faith in Christ? There may be times when we understandably feel that our faith is weak and we trust in many other things other than God. When we do so, let us not forget that it is by the Spirit of God that Peter was able to confess that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Savior who is to save us from our sins. Therefore, if we pray for the gift of faith and genuine trust in God, we shall truly not forget that it is in God that we can really have genuine faith in the teachings of Jesus. The Spirit will strengthen us and help us to place our trust where it should really be placed.
Our level of trust in Jesus as the Savior shall grow and mature as we journey like Peter, who after he confessed in the Spirit that Jesus was the Christ, eventually learned by experience that that confession will be tested very much when Jesus became powerless in his eyes and was captured by the Roman authorities under the instigation of the Jewish religious authorities. We in our time will also be tested after we truly confess that Christ is our Savior. We will be tested many times over through various experiences which will make Christ's message appear ridiculous to us or the Catholic faith as something negative and scandalous. But we must not lose faith for if we cry out to the Lord to help our unbelief, and repent of our sinfulness, we will be restored in our faith in Christ. Each time that we are restored in our faith and in our relationship to Christ (like Peter was), we will be called to strengthen our brothers and sisters in the faith context we are living in: the family, the workplace, the parish or the community.
posted by Dennis Emmanuel Cabrera | 10:20 PM
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