I find the second Reading a great encouragement. St Paul, who had seen the risen Jesus on the way to Damascus, who had been caught up to the third heaven and seen mysteries which cannot be described, who was filled with the Holy Spirit to write his letters to the Churches, who endured hunger, thirst, nakedness, attacks, shipwreck in the service of the Gospel, this St Paul asks: ‘who can penetrate [God’s] motives or understand his methods? Who can ever know the mind of the Lord?’ (I Cor. xi 34) If St Paul could not understand God, how can I? It is a great consolation.
Then in the Gospel St Peter shows us a way forward. In the Gospel St Peter is a true encouragement who leads us further on. In the Gospel St Peter has a marvelous moment of insight. It is the point in our Lord’s ministry when he needs to be recognized as he truly is. So far people have seen him as a rabbi, a great teacher, as a prophet, as a healer. Now the full truth must be stated. Jesus asks his disciples: ‘Who do you say I am?’ It is Peter who answers: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ There is the full truth about Jesus of Nazareth. He is the anointed one, God with us in his human life. How does Peter come to this great statement? Because he has followed Jesus as a disciple. With all his faults, with all his impatience, he has followed Jesus as a disciple. So he can give the Christian profession of faith, the truth about Jesus of Nazareth, that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter is then established as the rock on which the Church will stand, as the enduring witness to the truth about our Lord. ‘Peter’s task is to serve so that none of the gifts of the Church will be lost. For the Church is the community to live according to Jesus’ new age of truth and love. If Mary is the first born of the new Creation, Peter is her servant. He stands within the Church, charged with keeping the Church true to its witness to our Lord. By his witness, Peter, moreover, becomes the source of the unity between Christians.’ (S. Hauerwas Matthew pp. 150-151) Our great joy, our great privilege, is that we can say with Peter, this is our faith, this is the faith of the Church. The Immaculate Heart of Mary & St Dominic, Homerton
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