What A Change!!!

Last weekend, we heard Peter make his confession of faith saying that Jesus, "Is the Christ, the Son of the living God." After he made that confession Jesus told Peter that he is rock and upon that rock the church will be built. Our Lord even gave Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. This week is a different story! In Matthew 16:21-27, Jesus tells his disciples about his approaching death and the resurrection. Peter rebukes our Lord and says, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." In response, Jesus said to him, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." That is an interesting comment from our Lord but he knew what his mission was and what he came to do. God sent His only Son into the world to die for us so that we may be saved and through his resurrection have the hope of eternal life. The second part of that gospel is Jesus' challenge to his disciples and to us: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." As our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI writes, "The cross forces us to look upon the fact that we are loved by God. The cross becomes a new center of gravity for the bringing together of what is divided" (Magnificat, 373). As we accept our Lord's challenge, we do not know what crosses we will have to carry, but we have faith and trust that our Lord is with us each step of the way. To get to the resurrection we need to go through the cross. Let us pray that we may accept this challenge, pick up the cross and follow our Lord, because his words and his life is the way to eternal happiness. Have a blessed weekend!!!