Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
(James
2:1-9; Mark 8:27-33)
Today’s
gospel parallels yesterday’s. In
yesterday’s reading Jesus brings a blind man to full sight in two stages. At Jesus’ first touch the man cannot see the
true nature of things. People, he says,
are like walking trees. When Jesus touches
his eyes a second time, the man sees things clearly.
In today’s
gospel Peter correctly calls Jesus “the Christ” but has a false notion of what
this means. He thinks of Jesus as a
political Messiah. That is, he expects
Jesus to liberate Israel from Roman rule with a sword. When Jesus tells him that as Messiah he must
suffer, not conquer, to defeat evil, Peter tries to correct him. Jesus reacts by calling Peter “’Satan.’” Satan in Scripture is the great tempter. Jesus means that Peter’s false notion of
Messiah would tempt Jesus to abandon his Father’s mission. Presumably, Peter’s
eyes now are fully open to see what a true Messiah must do.
We love
heroes. Their victories give us hope to
conquer those whom we find objectionable.
Jesus, however, has shown us a surer way to defeat evil. He was not a hero but a saint. He patiently endured evil in order to
overcome it. On the cross he bore the
world’s sins and won for us forgiveness.
As his disciples we are to continue his work of bearing with others in
love. We do this even for the people we
find objectionable. In this way we also
assure ourselves a place with Jesus in eternal life.
