Within Them

August 7, 2008

Thursday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jeremiah 31:33

You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. Matthew 16:23

Piety

Let us pray: Our belief in the risen Christ sustains us in confronting the evils in our world today and the awesome responsibility we have to confront evil on all fronts. Present in the beginning as the word of the Father, present in history as the word incarnate, and with us today in his word, sacraments, and spirit, Jesus is the reason for our hope and faith. Respecting our freedom, Lord, we know that you do not seek to solve our problems but you will sustain us as we take seriously the stewardship for your creation and try to shape it in the ways of the kingdom. Please do not allow your grace to ever fail us and always stick by our side as you explained in the New Covenant. Amen. (Inspired by The Challenge of Peace, USCCB, May 1983)

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/080708.shtml

Popular culture gives us many perfect pairs.

Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock
Batman and Robin
Abbott and Costello
Charlie Brown and Snoopy
Pooh and Piglet
Butch and Sundance

The Bible gives us many perfect pairs as well…
Adam and Eve
David and Goliath
King Solomon and Queen Sheba
Samson and Delilah
Joseph and Mary
Mary and Martha

The ultimate biblical pairing must be Jesus and Peter. Jesus the living God. Peter the living human. When Jesus is at his best showing us the way, the truth and the light, Peter also is at his best holding up a mirror to our selves, our lives, our faith, our doubts, and our frailties.

The various scenes in the Gospels that feature the life of Peter and his encounters and exchanges with Jesus reveal much about our ideals of piety, study and action. As Jesus encourages us to reach for the heavens, Peter grounds us on earth and reminds us of our humanity. Yesterday, we saw Peter’s attempts at offering unnecessary human hospitality to Moses, Elijah and God. Today, we listen as Jesus reveals the real meaning of this new covenant with Peter and the disciples.

No one likes to see the ones they love suffer. It is an understandable human emotion that Peter exhibits today. In his “flesh and blood,” Peter is smart enough to know who Jesus is but also too weak and his perspective too limited to understand the meaning and the reason for which Jesus (and then Peter) must suffer.

In the fullest sense, Jeremiah’s prophecy of the New Covenant was fulfilled only through the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus was explaining the culmination of the New Covenant to Peter and the disciples. In the end, this New Covenant is fulfilled in the Eucharist.

Sp today, without the Eucharist and without the Resurrection, Peter reflects our weakness. Only later, when that new covenant Eucharist is within us, on our tongues, in our hearts, in our minds and on our lips and on our hands will Peter and we understand its fullness.

Action

What is our obstacle? If Peter was one of Jesus’ obstacles, what is ours and how can we remove it?

When Jesus was confronted by the death of his friend Lazarus, he commanded those with him to “Roll away the stone.” The stone was what separated Lazarus from the land of the living. Jesus wanted to grant Lazarus passage back to that land.

In his own case, only through death was Jesus able to redeem us from our sins. After He accomplished that, again the obstacle, the stone, had to be rolled away so the Messiah could come back to be with his friends.

Let us vow to consider what stones we must roll away and remove the objects in our way just as Jesus commanded Peter to “get behind me” so he would not be in the way of the cross.