Welcoming the Holy
Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.
By: Sister Melissa Gernon
Opening Prayer
Dear Lord,
Transform our lives through the listening of your word. May we put your love into action as we encounter others on our journey. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Gospel
Matthew 16:21-27
Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned to Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay according to his conduct.”
Reflection
How many times have you said to someone, “You don’t know what you’re talking about?” Or, how many times has someone said that to you? Peter was always the brave one (or the naïve one) to test Jesus. Usually, the other disciples let Peter do the talking for what they all were thinking. In this case, Peter, trying to make sense of all Jesus has just said, is trying to protect Jesus. He doesn’t understand what Jesus is saying.
How many times do I question God for telling me things I don’t quite understand? How many times do I want to argue with the outcome that is sure to come? It is usually because I fear the truth, the truth of the consequences of my actions. If only I understood, without all the questioning and doubting, that where Jesus asks me to go, being a true follower of him in every sense of the word, denying those things that keep me burdened, I will have the eternal life he promised. I am sure my life would look very different.
Closing Prayer
Renewed by your word, Lord, help me remember that eternal life with You in heaven is my priority. Affirm this goal in my life as I live to love and serve the dear neighbor, bringing all into complete and total union with You. Amen.