Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 4th August

Message from Fr Paul for Thursday, 4th August 2022

 What with England’s ladies winning the European Football Cup and the Commonwealth Games taking place in Birmingham, not to mention the chaos going on at some British airports and at Dover, you could be forgiven for not realising that there’s still a horrific war being waged in Ukraine with no sign of it coming to an end. We pray for peace in Ukraine, but that mustn’t mean appeasement, and for a just end to the war, and that does not mean ceding territory or expecting the West alone to rebuild all that has been destroyed. Whatever became of the promises made to Ukraine on giving up its nuclear arsenal at independence to protect its people and its borders and where are the nations who were the guarantors of that national independence and integrity? Forgive me mentioning this, but I fear that bread and circuses are taking our minds off the horrors that people very close to us are going through at this very moment.

 Our Gospel today comes at the very heart of Matthew, (Mt 16: 13-23), Peter’s declaration of faith at Caesarea Philippi, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It is here that Jesus put that important question to the disciples. First of all, “Who do others say that I am?” When they have given him the usual standard answers, John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets, he asks them for a personal take on the answer, “What about you? Who do you say that I am?” When Peter answers for the Twelve, Jesus replies, “Simon, son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So, I now say to you: You are Peter and, on this rock, I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.” The Church, the mystical Body of Christ, the community of those whose faith has been confirmed by Baptism, is built on the basis of the rock of Peter’s faith, the declaration that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, the Christ. That is our faith, that is what we believe, that is what gives meaning to our lives.

 However, this episode doesn’t end there, for Jesus then makes clear to the disciples what being the Christ really means, and they find it hard to accept, in particular Peter. “From that time Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord;’ he said ‘this must not happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’” What a sudden change! From being the rock on which the Church is built, Peter quickly becomes an obstacle in the path of God’s plan to redeem all who would become this Church. He no longer thinks like Jesus; he has placed his own thoughts before God’s. This is a real warning to us all, for we often put our own thoughts, plans and ideas before God’s, those revealed in Scripture and those in the magisterial teaching of the Church. May Heaven preserve us from thinking and acting in that way!