Musings
The Bigger the Temptation, the Sharper the Rebuke
Temptations have an important part to play in the life of every man.
Temptations are constant reminders that we are human and, therefore, prone to failure. We know better, but we choose to do otherwise.
Temptations are the best reasons for remaining humble. They prove how tentative and undependable we are. How can one be boastful and proud when one knows he cannot be relied on to do what is good and right?
The pity of it is that, sometimes, we are not even aware that we are being tempted.
Or that we are the ones tempting.
In the Gospel reading for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus Christ rebukes Peter for remonstrating against God’s plan that Jesus “must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Oozing with good intention, Peter says: “God forbid, Lord. No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
The rebuke he gets from the Lord is swift and harsh. “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
Peter is very much like some of us — filled with good intentions, passionate in his commitment, but shallow in his understanding of the larger plan of God for his life and that of mankind. As a result, he is rash, impetuous, and vulnerable.
It is not the first time that Jesus has given his disciples hints and shared his premonition that his earthly life was going to end in rather ignominious fashion. But such hints were interspersed with soaring declarations and assurances that he was the Son of God and he had come to save mankind; that he was reserving mansions in his kingdom for his followers and that his kingdom would have no end.
On top of that, he had manifested mind-blowing examples of his power to cure the sick, expel demons, still the winds, and bring back the dead to life. Surely, such power would not allow mere mortals — even an army of armed soldiers — to overpower him, let alone torture and kill him.
Such irony was beyond Peter’s ability to reconcile, resolve, and comprehend. He was just a simple fisherman after all, who was called by Jesus to drop everything he was doing and just follow the Teacher and Master. He would make them fishers of men, instead, he had said. Did Peter fully understand what that meant?
Now, he is telling them: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Hold it! After saying he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly, and be killed, now, he is telling them whoever wishes to follow him must also take up his cross. And be killed, too?
It must have been just too much for Peter. That’s why he blurted out: “God forbid! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
In his simple, down-to-earth and practical mind, all that Peter knew was that Jesus was a friend whom he deeply loved and admired and he would not allow harm to come to him. He would be ready to draw his sword against anyone who would attempt to harm Jesus.
How was he to understand that Jesus was setting the stage for the most important choice he, or any man for that matter, would have to make:
“What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?”
But how could Peter even fathom that the life Jesus is referring to is none other than eternal life in Jesus’s kingdom, where “the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and repay all according to his conduct.”
We know now, of course, that eventually, Peter would be able to make sense of this all.
But only after the suffering and death of Jesus shall have been consummated. And only after he shall have risen from the dead after three days, just as he had foretold. And only after the Holy Spirit shall have descended on Peter and his fellow disciples on that great day of Pentecost and completely transformed them from fragile and frightened disciples into bold and divinely empowered apostles ready and raring to evangelize the world.
Before such complete transformation, Peter waffled and dithered, seeming to want to follow and obey, but hesitating in the face of adversity and discomfort, or especially threat to one’s security and life. In the process, and, most likely, without really intending to, he acted like a stumbling block to God’s plan. He appeared as if he was tempting the Lord to back off.
That is why he merited Christ’s stinging rebuke: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
We cannot help but recall how Jesus Christ had been similarly tempted on two other occasions and how he responded to such temptations.
When the Devil tried to tempt him to break his 40-day fast in the desert, he emphatically said: “Be off, Satan! You must not put the Lord your God to the test. You must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.”
On the night before he was led to his death, he prayed in great agony in the garden of Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Nevertheless, let it be as you, not I, would have it.”
In the face of temptation, especially that which attempts to distort or divert God’s plan for us, Jesus shows us the way to fight it. No dilly-dallying. No dithering. Be off, Satan. Get thee behind me, Satan. You must not put the Lord your God to the test.
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful,
and kindle in them the fire of your love. “
It is the power of such love that will give us the unerring strength to conquer every temptation, every attempt to draw us away from the path that leads to everlasting life.
Ave Maria!
