Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Mt 16:13-23
August 4, 2022 | Thursday

Today’s Gospel

After that, Jesus came to Caesarea Philippi. He asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They said, “For some of them, you are John the Baptist; for others Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”

Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “It is well for you, Simon Barjona, for it is not flesh or blood that has revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.

And now I say to you: You are Peter; and on this Rock I will build my Church; and never will the powers of death overcome it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you unbind on earth shall be unbound in heaven.”

Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

From that day, Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem; that he would suffer many things from the Jewish authorities, the chief priests and the teachers of the law; and that he would be killed and be raised on the third day.

Then Peter took him aside and began to reproach him, “Never, Lord! No, this must never happen to you!”

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path. You are thinking not as God does, but as people do.”

Today’s Reflection:

The Church was founded by Jesus through the faith of the apostles which was represented by the confession of Peter’s faith in Jesus as the Messiah. This is Peter’s Christology which comes from his personal encounters with Jesus on the days and nights he personally shared with Him together with the other disciples. Moreover, when Peter learned that the Messiah would suffer, die and rise, he wanted to hinder this from happening so that He was called “satan” by Jesus. Let us not be confused by the term “satan” used by Jesus here because its etymological meaning from the original text would mean “the accuser”. This means that Peter’s objection to the fate of the Messiah is just a persuasion to tempt Jesus but does not speak of the personhood of Peter.

Like Peter, we might have also our own confession of faith or Christology based on our own personal encounter with Jesus in our day to day lives for God always reveals Himself in the ordinary events of our lives. Let us look deeper into our own lives to find these little revelations. /Vulnerasti, 2022