Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and
he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They
replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or
one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon
Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus
said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you
are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the
netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom
of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever
you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly ordered his
disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief
priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then
Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such
thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me,
Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as
human beings do.”
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Reflection:
About ten (10) years
ago, Every Sunday I would regularly go to the house of a sick 85 years old
former Eucharistic minister to give him Holy Communion. He was poor and was
renting a small house with his children. It would seem that he was suffering
but he was always thankful for the blessings of Jesus every Sunday. I never
heard him complain about his suffering.
When Jesus was
giving some hints of His forthcoming sufferings and eventual death; Peter
rebuked Him by saying: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to
you.” (Matthew 16:22) Just like Peter many of us are averse with sufferings; we
want to avoid it as much as possible. Perhaps this is our human nature; we
don’t want to suffer for the simple reason that it’s difficult.
But sufferings are
part and parcel of life. No matter how we deftly avoid it, it will eventually
catch us along our journey in this world. However, if we have Jesus in our life
we will never complain about our physical suffering/s.
How about Jesus? Is
HE averse with sufferings? No, HE is not, in fact HE told HIS disciples that HE
would be suffering greatly from the hands of elders, chief priest and scribes
then eventually be killed by them. (Matthew 16:21) Why is Jesus not afraid of
suffering/s? This is for the reason that Jesus knows that God is with Him.
Jesus embraced HIS
sufferings for the reason that HE knew that it was part of HIS mission of
salvation. HE let go of HIS life and HE entrusted it to almighty God.
Life is not always
how we like it to be, there would come a time that we will encounter hardships
and sufferings. Let us not lose sleep about this, let us simply trust our all
knowing and all loving almighty God. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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