Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 5th August
Message from Fr Paul for Thursday, 5th August 2021
My father was an avid gardener and always had a beautifully kept garden full of flowers, fruit and vegetables. When I was a boy, we seemed to eat garden produce all the year round. I think that he and our neighbour had a permanent competition on to see who could produce the biggest and the best of everything. Sadly, I didn’t inherit his green fingers, but I’ve always admired the fruits of other people’s labours. Yesterday, while on a short evening stroll with Toby, I noticed that our wisteria has begun to bloom for a second time (is that normal, I don’t know?) and, needless to say, the perfume is intoxicating.
Today, our Gospel passage from Matthew, (Mt 16: 13-23), brings us to a foundational episode at the very heart of the Gospel story, Peter’s declaration of faith at Caesarea Philippi. “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘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.’ Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.” This is the pivotal moment in which Peter, in the name of the Apostles, declares his belief in Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus replies by saying that this is not something that they have worked out for themselves, but rather that it is divine revelation. God the Father himself has revealed this to them. We often forget that the Christian faith is based on revelation, on God revealing himself to us in history and today. Jesus goes on to say that Peter is the rock on which his Church will be built and on which it will stand for ever, to bring all men and women to this same faith in Jesus and in that faith be saved. Hence the keys of the kingdom of heaven: all is based on the purity and orthodoxy of Peter’s faith, as faith that as Christians we are called to share.
No sooner than he is named by Jesus to be the rock on which the Church is built, that he is called Satan by Jesus. “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.’” From Rock to Satan and from a faith based on revelation to being told, “the way you think is not God’s way, but man’s.” You have to feel for Peter, who so often puts his foot in it, who speaks without thinking, not understanding what he is saying, but keen to say something he thinks will be helpful. What you can’t help but notice about him is his simplicity and humility, the fact that he never bears a grudge, but with a willing heart is always ready faithfully to serve Jesus and accomplish the mission given him. Let’s pray that we be given some of that spirit for ourselves today.
