In the gospel for this past Sunday, Jesus reintroduces to us
the reality of divine paradox. Jesus begins by reading very accurately the
signs of his time. He has angered important people. He has created bitter enemies
among the “religious elite” of his religion. The Romans, being the control
freaks that they were, had to be eyeing the public ministry of Jesus with some suspicion
and concern, just as they had that of John the Baptist. The combined fear and
jealousy of the religious leaders coupled with the political angst of the
Romans were creating conditions that would eventually be fatal for Jesus, and,
Jesus knew this.
Knowing that this political and religious storm would be
awaiting him in Jerusalem, Jesus gave his apostles fair warning. Peter, eager
to save the life of his friend, urges Jesus to avoid Jerusalem altogether and
to continue to teach, and heal, and continue his ministry in the hinterlands of
Judea. Jesus had been greatly tempted at the beginning of his public ministry
by Satan, but it was not Satan tempting him this time, it was his best friend,
Peter. Peter, unknowingly, was offering Jesus an even far greater temptation.
The severely tested Jesus in addressing Peter as Satan, shows how great the proffered
temptation is. There was not just one cross at the end of Jesus’ journey to
Jerusalem. There were a multitude of crosses, land mines so to speak of hatred,
jealousy, conspiracy, political intrigue and betrayal that lined the road to
the ultimate cross that would bring about Jesus’ death. Oh, how Jesus longed to
not traverse that road and go some other way.
Do
we not find ourselves, like Peter, looking at all this doom and ultimate
destruction as obstacles to human living, even obstacles to the dissemination of
the Reign of God? Who amongst us would want to run pell-mell into all that
mayhem? I dare to say, not a one of us. Yet, Jesus’ scolding of Peter tells us
that it is not the hatred, jealousy, conspiracy, and ultimate pain of death
that are obstacles to the Reign of God, rather, it is the avoidance of these
things in our lives that lead us away from the Reign of God.
St Paul, in his 1st letter to the Corinthians
expounds on this. “The message of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God
… For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through
wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to
save those who have faith. For Jews demand signs and Greeks
look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a
stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but
to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than
human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. (1
Cor 1: 18, 20-25 NAB)
If we look at our lives with some retrospection, especially
those of us who have more years behind than before us, we will discover that it
has been often the crosses of our lives that have had the greatest impact in
shaping ourselves as spiritual beings. The crosses of broken relationships,
broken health, broken careers and so forth, are the chisels of a master
woodcarver by which our lives have been sculpted. It is the crosses that draw our
eyes and minds away from that which is finite and open them to the infinite. Rather
than distract us from the Reign of God, our crosses attract us all the more to
God’s Reign. The crosses of our lives are often that which draws us more fully
into the Reign of God. If we truly
reflect upon the crosses of our lives, we will discover the paradox about which
Jesus speaks. Our crosses are not the obstacles in our lives, but rather they
become the blessings of our lives.
Peter’s blindness consisted in that he was unable to see beyond
the word “cross.” The cross led to death, and death was the end. There was only
nothingness on the other side of death. Jesus’ eyes saw beyond the cross and
its suffering to the abundance of life that awaited him. The only way to that
abundance of life was through his death on the cross. So it is for us. In order
to enter the fullness of God’s Reign, we must first wade through the crosses
that are a part of our journey. Let not our eyes and minds be blinded like that
of Peter, and focus only upon the crosses of our lives and go no further. Let
our eyes be like that of Jesus and focus on what lies beyond the crosses to the
abundance of God’s life that awaits us.
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