+ Our gospel passage today is almost comical. St. Peter first gets is very right, and then he gets is very wrong. First he answers the question that Jesus poses as to "who people say I am" by being inspired by God the Father to say: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I am sure this response surprised Peter as much as it did Jesus and the rest of the disciples.
Then a few minutes later, when Jesus tells the disciples that he would have to go to Jerusalem to suffer greatly and be killed and then rise again on the third day: Peter hearing only what he wanted to hear blurted out: God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you. At which point Jesus turned around and blurted out: Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. But Peter was a human being, and so he thought that way; and what is more, for that moment, perhaps Satan did speak to Jesus through Peter, just as he spoke to him in the desert during the three temptations. Jesus' reply here was the same as it was then – Get away from me, Satan! I freely choose to do what I am doing, and I will do it til the very end: until I am resurrected from the dead, after being killed on a cross!
This Peter, this human, who later was filled with the Holy Spirit, and became the true head of the one Church founded by Christ – is a model for us – who at one moment can be filled with God's graces and strengths and can do great things for him; but seemingly at the very next moment can be weak, unfocused, quite contrary and not a very pleasing asset to the Christian community!
But, it is nice to know that God loves us in both instances, and he understands us in both instances, and he offers his love and peace and forgiveness in both instances! We are his children!
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