Mtr Mary Trainor

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain...*

Dear friend,

What an exchange. Peter, startled, affronted. They were just getting started. He had just figured out and could put into words who Jesus is. Now Jesus tells him and the others how it goes from here: the arrest, the suffering, the death, the rising.

No! Peter says. We’ll have none of that. This must not happen. He rebukes Jesus, which I think most of us find a bit nervy. Apparently Jesus does, too. To Peter: Get behind me, Satan… you are a stumbling block...you are thinking about human things, not divine

In our Office Gospel today from Matthew (16:21-28) Jesus talks for the first time about what awaits him in Jerusalem.

Of course Peter is upset. The others must be, too. They can only hear the “dying” part. They see it only one way, from the human perspective, while the divine gift of resurrection goes unrecognized.

Jesus’ life has purpose. Jesus’ death has purpose. Life and death are bound up together in God’s plan. Jesus’ approach to Jerusalem is not one of passive acceptance, or giving up, or acquiescing, but rather one of recognizing his purpose, of embracing his part in the divine plan of salvation as it now comes to him.

If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,

Death is the Great Mystery of life. Even as we profess to believe in resurrection, we are tempted—as was Peter—to push death away. We reject it wholly as though it has nothing to do with God’s plan for us, as though it is an interruption, a derailment, an unnatural break that separates us from everything that matters.

Peter rebukes Jesus for moving toward Jerusalem and death. But we know that Jesus is not giving up or giving in, but rather moving toward and into God’s purpose for him.

Death has a place on our path, too. We may not know its time or location, as Jesus did, which for me points toward an even greater urgency to discern and fulfill God’s purpose for my life. Each day in each situation. Every moment, every kind gesture, every supportive act, no matter how small or large. These have value and need to be savored, not just rushed through.

Most of us are not called to do things that make headlines or that will be recorded in history. Rather, we are called to be faithful to the day-by-day needs of a struggling world.

Peter’s rebuke of Jesus is a gift to us. Without it, we may have proceeded directly to Jerusalem without reflection, without push-back, without coming to terms with how even death is a part of our Holy purpose.

Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Mtr. Mary

*From the poetry of Emily Dickinson.