YEAR OF MISSION : TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

It’s easier to tell someone what others think of them rather than tell someone what you actually think of them. Peter, speaking for the Twelve, nails his colours to the mast: ‘You are the Christ!’  Jesus then unfolds for the Twelve exactly what that means – he will suffer, he will die and he will rise again. That’s not something Peter wants to hear. He’s happy to ‘believe’ in the Christ who will save God’s people, who will champion God’s people, who will liberate God’s people… but a Christ who will suffer? That’s not on his radar, nor does it fit his image of the Christ. There are harsh words spoken to Peter in calling him Satan but they wake him up to the fact that we cannot make God in our image! Suffering, difficulty, rejection and abandonment are part of that image and they are part of the disciple’s life, too. And even when they are – in some great or small way – we mustn’t forget the ‘rising from the dead’. God does not abandon us when we suffer, when we face rejection or difficulty. He is there and he walks with us, alongside of us, just as the psalmist has confidence in the presence of God in the midst of everything. Wherever we are, whatever we face this week, know God is there at our side.