euphemos

“God forbid, Lord!” “Get behind me, Satan… You are not thinking as God does…” Poor Peter – I’m sure all the disciples did and said the wrong thing, but somehow he’s the one we get to see messing up and being rebuked by Jesus. 

When Peter rejected the idea that Jesus should suffer and die, he also accidentally rejected resurrection. Satan encourages us to look at only one side of things. It seems simple enough – suffering is bad, so we should avoid suffering. But, if Jesus didn’t suffer and die, he could not be raised from the dead. 

Sin and suffering are evils, but our God is able to bring good from those evils. Saints and theologians even suggest sin and suffering are somehow necessary.

Saint Peter wasn’t thinking with the mind of Christ. Neither do I.

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A

Do you ever feel like the Canaanite woman? Do you ever feel like Jesus isn’t listening, and isn’t helping? Do you ask repeatedly, but seem to get no answer, and no help?

Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 112

Five tortillas. Two fish. More than five thousand hungry people in the wilderness. 

God could have rained down manna. God could have sent a flock of quail. They were not far from the sea – God could have made thousands of fish jump out of the water to be collected on the beach. God could have simply granted them miraculous strength, so they were not hungry.

Instead, God told his disciples to bring to him what they had.