Dear Friends in Jesus Christ…, What a difference between Peter in the Gospel last Sunday when he proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah and Peter in the Gospel today when he takes Jesus aside to try to dissuade him from facing his Passion in Jerusalem. What a difference between Jesus’ response to Peter in the Gospel last Sunday when he declared Peter to be the Rock on which he would build his Church and Jesus’ response to Peter in the Gospel today when he called Peter “Satan” and an obstacle to his mission. Comparing the conversation between Jesus and Peter in today’s Gospel with the conversation between Jesus and the devil during his temptations in the desert is disturbing. Peter took Jesus aside just as the devil took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and to a high mountain to tempt him. Jesus dismisses Peter with the same word as he dismisses the devil at the end of his temptations in the desert. Jesus uses the word skandalon to describe Peter. That word means a trap or small stone one trips over. So Peter the Rock is now a stone one trips over when going on one’s journey. Just before today’s Gospel, Jesus declared Peter to be the Rock, and now he declares Peter to be an obstacle. He is a hindrance to Jesus on the road to his Passion in Jerusalem. Jesus must face his Passion and endure it for our salvation. What has changed? When Peter proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, he was acting under divine inspiration; Jesus told him it was his heavenly Father who had revealed it to him. When Peter takes Jesus aside to try to discourage him from his Passion, he was not under divine inspiration but acting out of his impulse and his thinking, believing he knew better than Jesus. That may sometimes be our failing also; sometimes, we too think we know better than God. We cannot understand why we have a cross. Or we could think of those who profess faith in Jesus, but like Peter does not want Jesus to interrupt their lifestyles. They want Jesus on their terms. I am thinking of those who would say you are an extremist if you declare that certain lifestyles are immoral or would put one in mortal sin. Peter wanted Jesus but did not want the cross. We also do not want a cross. We want Jesus, but without the challenge of living a moral life. Jesus’ response would surely be, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You think not as God does, but as human beings do.” Yet Peter is a beacon of hope. While we do not see a complimentary picture of Peter in the Gospel today, we know this is not the full picture. Today we get only a partial view of Peter. On two more occasions, we also get partial images of Peter, which are not impressive; when he denied three times that he knew Jesus and when he did not go to Calvary while the Beloved Disciple and the women went. But Peter is completely transformed later. In the Acts of the Apostles, again and again, we see Peter acting courageously after Pentecost. He was brought before the Sanhedrin twice just after Pentecost for preaching about Jesus and was imprisoned once. Instead of denying Jesus, he considered it an honor to suffer for Jesus. At the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus tells him he will be martyred, just like Jesus. Peter was crucified just to the left of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and buried in the nearest cemetery, which is under the high altar of St. Peter’s. A tradition tells us that Peter asked to be crucified upside down because he did not consider himself worthy of being crucified in the same way as Jesus. So whether it is our sin or the sins of others that are a skandalon - a stone to make us trip - we can have great hope because of Peter. Clearly, Peter went from a small stone or skandalon that makes one trip on one’s journey to become someone powerful, mighty, a Rock, the first Pope. What changed? Peter’s faith in Jesus grew so that he no longer acted under impulse but under the power of the Holy Spirit. We see two alternatives in Peter; rejecting the cross and being a stone to make one trip, or accepting the cross to live a new life in union with Jesus. We cannot have Jesus without the cross. God Bless You, Fr. Thomas