First Reading Commentary
The word “duped” in the Latin Vulgate translates
as “deceived” and both words seem to make God appear to be untruthful; but, of
course, He Who is the Truth cannot lie.
The Hebrew text translates as “enticed” and perhaps that is the most
appropriate word of the three. Even
though “enticed” can have a slightly negative connotation, the idea for the
reflective reader is to make it harmonious with “fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones” which delineates God as irresistible. The Hebrew text approaches this from the
point of view of what God is really doing, while the other two translations
seem to translate it from the prophet’s perspective -- in other words, what it
felt like to be in the prophet’s shoes.
This Reading is about the suffering that the
prophet received by accepting the commission of prophet. And he is feeling a bit betrayed because God
concealed the fact that as a prophet suffering would be unavoidable.
As everything of the Old Testament points to
Jesus, we can enter into our Savior’s fulfillment of this text with the words:
“Let this chalice pass from Me” (Matthew
26:39) and “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). Many of us
could look back on at least one event in our life where we felt that God had
turned His Back on us; but suffering entered into the world as the result of
man’s fall; and nowhere has the pain of sin been experienced more fully than by
He Who knew no sin, but became sin for us (cf.
2 Corinthians 5:21).
The fire of God burns in every human heart: some
are prepared for His intense heat in mystical prayer; the enticing secularist
culture as well as the burdens of the daily grind reduces many of us to
experiencing only the flickering flames; while others wish the fire could be
completely extinguished. Our Lord’s
presence is never truly unknown, even by those who claim He doesn’t exist. We will try to draw closer to Him, or be
indifferent to sharing our life with Him, or waste a lot of energy attempting
to escape from Him. Whatever means is
chosen by our God given gift of free will, the creature has infused knowledge
that there is a Creator.
Second Reading Commentary
Saint John Chrysostom defines the
offering of our bodies as a living sacrifice in this way: “Let the eye abstain
from sinful looks and glances, and it is a sacrifice; the tongue from speaking
ill, and it is a sacrifice.” And in today’s
culture contraception, abortion, and sexual activity outside of marriage could
certainly be added to the list of abuses to the body; and with the temptations
of our modern world, not surrendering to these temptations can certainly feel
like a sacrifice. Living according to
the example taught to us by Jesus Christ and modeled for us by the saints is a
sacrifice; but it is a sacrifice that is transforming and brings us closer to
God. And all that is of God is good,
pleasing, and perfect.
To get there, however, we must find
the courage to examine our consciences.
Such fears keep many Catholics away from the Sacrament of
Reconciliation, and secularism now offers an easy out by suggesting there’s no
such thing as sin. But the saints, in
all their diversity, had that one thing in common: they wanted to be very aware
of their own darkness in order to expose it to the Light.
Saint Paul pleads with us not to
conform ourselves to this world. Thus,
as lovers of the Lord, we have to ask ourselves if we are in some
way conformed to the world. When
the public sins of this day and age lose their shock value, when they fail to
produce a jolt to our heart rate, when we become somewhat
desensitized to all the atrocities that make headline news, then we have
to admit that we have at least some level of conformity to this world. But all is not lost – Saint Paul teaches us
to be transformed by the renewal of our minds.
Walking with Jesus daily has to transform us. He is the same God Who became like fire
burning in the heart of the prophet Jeremiah in the First Reading. He did it then, and He will do it now, but
our gift of free will has to give Jesus permission. This is surrender --
but we are not handing ourselves over to tyranny -- but humbly placing ourselves
before the Feet of Love -- Love that is stronger than sin and death.
Gospel Commentary
It is here in this weekend’s Gospel that our
Lord decides to break the news about a mysterious Passion that will occur. Interestingly, our Lord follows up
immediately with the prediction of the Resurrection but the apostles, or at
least Peter, can’t seem to get past the Passion part of the prophecy. Of course, we don’t know for sure what was on
the minds of the apostles at this point but one can imagine the disturbed looks
they must’ve had which is likely why Peter took Jesus aside to rebuke Him. Peter was either thinking that there are
twelve apostles and they would surely be able to protect Jesus, or he assumed
that with all the miracles they witnessed from Jesus, certainly Jesus Himself
could easily prevent such a tragedy.
“Get behind Me, Satan” are shocking words but it
seems that our Lord recognizes His adversary at work through Peter. We at times struggle with understanding the
ways of God and this Gospel is a real wake-up call as to how deceptive evil can
be because of our lack of understanding God.
Recall 9/11, the tsunami, other disasters and your own personal or
family misfortunes -- can you hear yourself asking why God didn’t prevent
it? Can you now hear, “Get behind Me,
Satan!”?
Very few human beings have advanced far enough
in the spiritual life to accept whatever may come without complaint. But those who have trust that misfortune
arrived because God allowed it and therefore are confident that just as Jesus
rose from His tragedy, likewise God will rise and bring good out of the
unfortunate occurrences of their own lives.
But don’t fret if you’re not one of the few -- some of the Church’s
greatest saints have been known to have a short fuse. Intellectually, most of us are on the same
page with the mystics of the Church in believing that God will work it all out,
but unlike the mystics, our hearts and dispositions just can’t seem to roll
with the punches.
Poor Peter surely thought he was being noble but
he was actually speaking words that were contrary to the will of God, the glory
of Jesus Christ, the redemption of humanity, and the defeat of Satan. How awkward would it feel to have to go to
Confession and say that you’re guilty of trying to save Jesus from being
murdered? As you can see, we have a long
way to go in our quest to discern the ways of God. Let’s not forget that in last weekend’s
Gospel Jesus made Peter the head of the Church and gave him the keys to the
Kingdom of heaven. And now this week,
Satan immediately begins his deceptive work on Peter. This should prompt us to always remember to
pray for the pope. The most
comprehensive lesson to be taken from “Get behind Me, Satan” is that Jesus is
saying you and I will never know the joy of the resurrection without first
experiencing the cross. Saint Rose of
Lima said: “Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get
to heaven.”
