Homily of Thursday, February 17, 2022

“…Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom that he promised to those who love him? But you dishonored the poor.” (James 2). “…He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Mark 8) – from the readings of Mass for Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time. 

It’s safe to say that we have all answered that question that Jesus poses: Who do you say that I am? That’s the reason we are here in this church this morning. It’s a starting point. Peter was a very talented man. He was a small businessman, if you will, a very practical man who understood how things worked in the world. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he understood that Jesus was the Messiah. The Greek word is “Christ”; the Hebrew word is “Messiah.” The word “Messiah” was also applied to Cyrus the Great, who liberated the Jewish people from captivity in Babylon. The Messiah was understood to be a glorious figure. And here, after Peter’s profession of faith, explains all the terrible things that were going to happen to him, his humiliation. Peter rightly thought this could not be and rebukes Jesus. And Jesus gives him those words: You’re thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. No doubt we, too, think as human beings. We must be very careful on the judgments that we make, that they are human judgments, and perhaps not in accord with the way God thinks. God can bring great good out of conditions and circumstances and people that we regard as quite less than good. So may we be inspired by the Holy Spirit. And may we be in accord with God’s thinking as much as possible. And allow God to be God, and allow us to be His servants. 

Images from Ade Bethune series of the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy. Ade Bethune was an oblate of Portsmouth Abbey, a close friend of Dorothy Day, and well-known artist whose images frequently appeared in “The Catholic Worker.”