16 February 2023
Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
A big question that comes out of the Gospel reading today is “what metrics of success do we use to define our lives?”. It might seem shocking that Jesus refers to Peter as “Satan”, which comes from Hebrew terminology that means “to obstruct” or “to oppose”. What Jesus is really getting at is that Peter is making himself an obstacle to God’s will by defining his parameters of success based on purely human, temporal terms. And on the surface who would blame him? Just for a moment, let’s attempt to put the best possible spin on the situation and imagine that Peter, who has just correctly stated that Jesus is the Christ, is concerned for the the welfare of his friend. Moreover, in his limited understanding, he can’t imagine a worse outcome for the hopes of the Jewish people who popularly were hoping for a liberating conqueror who would free them from the yoke of Roman rule. However, even assuming this best possible interpretation in which Peter is sincerely concerned for a beloved friend and mentor, his sentiment is still misguided.
The reason he’s wrong is that he’s operating based on the parameters of tangible, practical human metrics, which, let’s be honest, is extremely tempting. The reality of human existence, however, is that while our earthly lives are extremely significant, they ultimately only constitute a tiny part of our larger destiny. God’s metrics for success often have little to do with the temporal metrics of success we create for ourselves. Our motives, even when well-intentioned, are often short-sighted and imperfect whereas God’s metrics correspond to our infinite, eternal good. Thus, while Peter’s motives might have been sincere, they still fell short for two significant reasons. The first is that he wasn’t able to understand the scope of Jesus’ redemptive mission. While this incomplete knowledge wasn’t necessarily a fault, it does correspond to the second reason, which is that Peter should not have tried to correct Jesus. Rather, his place was to follow faithfully in loving fidelity and obedience to the Lord.
We often face similar challenges in our lives in that we want to see the whole picture before we’re willing to make an act of faith. It’s tempting to want certainty and, let’s face it, it’s tempting to want to tell God what we think He should do. It is important in these moments for us to take a step back and realize that God loves us more than we can possibly imagine and that He desires better things for us than we could ever desire for ourselves. It’s thus important that we learn from the Gospel the necessity of unconditional trust in God who unconditionally loves, cares, and provides for us each day of our lives.