Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law.
He would be killed, and after three days rise again. Jesus said all this quite openly, so that Peter took him aside and began to protest strongly.
But Jesus, turning around, and looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does,
but as people do.”

REFLECTION:
Who do you say that I am? The same question is asked of us? It is easy to blurt out an answer right from the catechism that he is “the Son of God”.
But the Lord wants an ­answer from our very own experience, from our own heart.
Peter recognized Jesus as the Messiah. So also the disciples and the crowd. But did they ­really know who Jesus was?
Jesus immediately told his disciples what it meant to be the Messiah: that he would suffer and give himself up to death.
It was too much for Peter. How could the Son of the Almighty God suffer?
Like the apostles, we want a powerful God who intervenes in our life, heals our illnesses, and solve our problems.
But Jesus’ way is through the cross. The apostles finally understood after the Resurection that we cannot really say that Jesus is the Christ unless we ascend with him on the cross,
the cross that is a judgment of the world of instant gratification, the cross that is the symbol of ultimate love.
Jesus is indeed the Christ who journeys with us through the complexities of life.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2020