Welcome Back to Banquet of the Word!
Join us every week for background on this Sunday’s mass readings.
Our mission is simple:
We want to help everyone in “pew-land” get more out of mass.
Because it’s fun to feel smart about scripture.
He turned and said to Peter, “Get Behind Me, Satan.”
JER 20:7-9
(The 1st Reading is Old Testament. It always links to the Gospel.)
Jeremiah is one of the 4 Major Prophets. He tried desperately to tell the Israelites to return to the Lord, lest their city be destroyed and they be cast into exile by the Babylonians (which they were).
\A few verses earlier, Jeremiah shared a message from the LORD: “I will bring upon this city all the evil I have spoken against it, because they have become stubborn and have not obeyed my words.”
But Passhur, a chief priest of the house of the Lord, would hear none of it.
He threw Jeremiah in the stocks. Jeremiah doesn’t flinch – he tells Passhur the Lord names him (Passhur) “terror on every side.”
He says “You, Pashhur, and all the members of your household shall go into exile. To Babylon you shall go; there you shall die and be buried, you and all your friends, because you have prophesied lies to them.”
The next verse is our reading. Jeremiah speaks to the Lord. It is his deep interior crisis. Hear his words. Consider how Jeremiah must feel. Then think about times when you’ve felt the same way. Jeremiah felt duped by the Lord, and he says so, right to God.
When a loved one dies or is diagnosed with terminal illness. When a child is sick or being badly bullied. When your home and city are flooded beyond recognition. When you are battling poverty. Unemployment. Injustice. Abuse. Bankruptcy. Terror on every side.
You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.
But wait! for King David is about to lift our souls to their rightful place…
Psalm 63: My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
(The Psalm is a “response” to what we heard in the 1st Reading)
This psalm was written by David in the wilderness. Jeremiah was also in a wilderness of sorts, feeling abandoned by God. Even during these moments, our soul thirsts for the presence of God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
ROM 12:1-2
(The 2nd reading is usually from Paul’s letters. Speaks to how the early church was built after Christ’s death and resurrection).
This is Paul’s final section of the letter to the Romans (16 chapters in all). He gives some “moral catechesis”, teaching us how to apply the theology to real life.
He gives us a hint at today’s gospel when Jesus propehsies about the bodily death he will endure. Paul talks about what our bodies are truly for, according to God our Father: A living sacrifice, pure and holy. How different from the world’s current opinion, don’t you think?
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.
MT 16:21-27
(The Gospel is the highest point of the Liturgy of the Word. That’s why we stand.
We are about to hear from and be instructed by Christ Himself.)
“Get behind me, Satan.” These are the words Jesus says to Peter when he tells Jesus, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
Why is Jesus so direct?
Why does he call Peter “Satan?”
Peter becomes our first pope and just last week Jesus gave him the keys to the kingdom! What’s going on here?
Last week, Peter made his complete confession:
“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”This week, Peter is the tempter:
“No such thing shall ever happen to you, Lord.”
Last week’s words were inspired by The Father. This week, Peter shows his human weakness. He stands in the way of Jesus’s path to the cross.
Jesus tells Peter to “get behind Him” – not because Peter should “go away” or “get out of here,” but so that Peter might follow. So that Peter might return to his rightful place and let Jesus lead.
This image is so powerful. Peter is the rock upon whom Jesus built His Church. A rock can be strong and mighty, powerful and heavy. It can also – when in the way – trip people, cause pain, and make people lose their way.
Let’s think about a total eclipse. Think about God as the Sun and Peter as the Moon (a huge rock!). When Peter gets in the way of God, darkness follows. But the light of the Sun, the light of God, will come again, and that is the light we are called to follow.
Jesus tells us all today, “Get behind me.” Let us ask ourselves: How am I in God’s way? Wow, what a question worth pondering.
If we are in a painful place in our lives as Jeremiah was, where do we need to “fall in” and let God lead?
Let us pray for the strength to tell Him: “Lord, You are the Christ. The son of the Living God. I don’t know where I’m going. But I will follow your lead. Even to the cross. The cross of salvation.”
Jesus began to show his disciples
that he 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.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
“God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
He turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”
Banquet of the Word 