Reflection for Thursday August 4, Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest: Matthew 16:13-23

Gospel: Matthew 16:13-23

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:

Fourteen years ago, I would regularly go every Sunday 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. He was suffering both financially and physically 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 would never complain about our suffering we would simply accept it as part and parcel of our life’s journey.  

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