Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Last Sunday Peter got it exactly right. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said: blessed are you, Simon — flesh and blood did not reveal this, my Father did. He built the church on that confession and gave Peter the keys.

This Sunday, one sentence later in the story, Jesus tells Peter what the confession means in practice: Jerusalem, suffering, death, resurrection. And Peter pulls him aside and rebukes him. God forbid. This cannot happen to you.

Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.

Peter did not stop believing. He just could not accept what believing meant. Right answer, wrong cross. He confessed the Christ and then tried to protect the Christ from the cross — which is the same as trying to undo the confession.

Jeremiah had the same problem. He tried to hold the word in — I will not mention him, I will not speak in his name anymore. But it burned. It was like fire imprisoned in his bones. He grew weary holding it in. He could not endure it.

Paul this morning: do not conform to this age, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Offer your body as a living sacrifice. Whoever saves his life will lose it.