Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Welcome back to school to all of our children and young adults! I know you may grumble that you would rather be in the pool or at the beach, but I am sure you are glad to see your friends and soon you will all be busy and summer will become a memory. I want to assure you all of my sincere prayers for a happy healthy and fun year filled with learning. That goes for all of us! Whether we are in 1^st grade or we are the more, um..mature learner. Let’s all make a pact to learn something new about our faith. Why do we leave it all to the kids? You and I still have more we can learn, so let’s make a commitment to join our kids to learn something new every day about our faith so that by next summer we will be closer to God!

You might say our gospel echoes that thought. Little did Peter know when he professed Jesus as the Christ, what he was getting himself into! Matter of fact, a short time later after Jesus speaks of how he has to suffer and die, he tries to dissuade Jesus from talking that way! Did Peter know what he was saying? Did he really understand what it meant for Jesus to be the Christ? I don’t think so. He still had more to learn. He still had to open up his heart and mind to who Jesus was and what his mission was.

Think of it. Peter knew that Jesus was the anointed one, he stated it publicly in front of his brothers, but never could he have fathomed what being the Christ meant and to what lengths Jesus would go to make that all happen. Peter could only see on one plane; the human one. In Peter’s mind Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, sent by God to raise up Israel and free them from their enemies. The great King that who would rival King David and establish eternal peace and sovereignty for their nation. So, when he took Jesus aside to remonstrate him for talking all of this suffering and death nonsense, Jesus rebuked him. Peter had a lot more to learn.  

Instead, Jesus challenges not only the twelve, but the crowds that they would have to take up their crosses and risk everything if they wanted to follow him. He makes that same challenge to you and me 2000 years later. It’s easy to say that Jesus is the Christ, but it’s another thing to really understand what that means and live it. It means taking up that cross, the one we don’t like. The one we want to avoid and not only carry it, but embrace it. For his part, Jesus makes the promise that we will not lift it alone. That if we really understand and accept in our hearts that he is the Lord, the Christ, that there is nothing he cannot help us with. It also guarantees that he who took all of our brokenness on the cross with him knows exactly what we are going through and he promises never to let us go it alone. Being the Christ who is not some earthly King, but an eternal King means that forever he is with us who are true to him, till the end of time. Now, that’s easy to say, but harder to live. So I guess we all have something more to learn!

Question of the week: What does it mean to me when I say that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God? How do I live that confession in my life?

Peace,

Fr. Steve