Peter’s Confession about Jesus

Today's Reflections

                          

 

                 

Peter’s Confession about Jesus 

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Mt 16:13-23

¹³When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” ¹⁵He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  ¹⁶Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷Jesus 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. ¹⁸And 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. ¹⁹I 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.” ²⁰Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah.

²¹From 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. ²²Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”  ²³He 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.”

Reflection:

You are thinking not as God does. Peter is declared blessed for confessing that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of the living God. Jesus even promises Simon the full powers in his Church. But soon after, when Peter seeks to stop Jesus from speaking about his passion, death, and resurrection, Jesus calls him Satan. Peter is indeed acting as the tempter did, trying to make Christ deviate from the way planned by God for mankind’s redemption, the way of the cross leading to the resurrection. Jesus reproaches Peter for “thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

If we want to think as God does, we must seek the intimacy of God in prayer. It was said of St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominicans, that “he was either talking to God or talking about God.”

Let us seek the mind of God in all our actuations

and the happenings in our lives.