Thursday 8th August,
2019. Bible Study: Numbers 20:1-13, Psalm 95 and Matthew 16:13-23
_“Get
behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of
God, but of men.” *(Matthew 16:23)*_
Is it
possible that satan could be speaking through a man of God? One big lesson our
Gospel passage this morning teaches us is that we must never assume all our
thoughts and inspirations are divinely inspired. As the saying goes, “not all
that glitters is gold.”
Jesus was
very impressed with Peter when he correctly answered a question of his true
identity so much so that Jesus said: “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona! For flesh
and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I
tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” (Matthew
16:17-18).
For Jesus,
anyone who is capable of hearing things from God is capable of handling the
position of leadership. Peter was made the head of the apostles not because of
his age, not because of his academic qualifications, not because of his
international connections, not even because of his ethnicity or tribe but
because he was capable of hearing from God.
However,
few moments after Jesus had made Peter the Head of the church, Jesus turned
around to say to him: “Get behind me Satan…” This immediately tells us that no
one is above temptations. It can be heartbreaking when someone of the calibre
of Peter (say a priest, a bishop or even the Pope) says and does certain things
you do not expect. Peter ought to have known better. Peter should never have
tried to dissuade Jesus from the cross because it was precisely for the cross
that Jesus took human flesh in the first place.
Jesus did
not say “Get behind me Peter,” he said “Get behind me Satan” because Jesus using
his power of discernment saw that, Peter was not in charge of himself at that
moment; that something else was working in him. Jesus does not attack Peter
(like most of us would prefer to do), Jesus did not insult Peter. Jesus went
straight to the source; he attacked satan, for trying to take advantage of
Peter’s new position as the head of the Church.
In today’s
first reading, the people of Israel spoke against God once again, this time,
due to the absence of water when they came to the wilderness of Zin. They
troubled Moses with so many complaints and he could not take it anymore. He and
Aaron went to the door of the tent of meeting to seek God’s intervention. God
told Moses to take a rod, assemble the congregation and SPEAK to the rock to
yield its water.
Unfortunately,
Moses was carried away by the complaining attitude of the people. He probably
wasn’t paying attention to God’s instructions. He didn’t hear well; he did not
discern properly. He did not even believe water would come out from the rock.
Instead of speaking to the rock as God commanded, Moses STRUCK the rock with
the rod twice and water came forth from it. Moses disappointed God just as
Peter in today’s Gospel passage disappointed Jesus. God spoke later to Moses
saying, “Because you failed to believe me… you shall not bring this assembly
into the land which I have given them.”
From the
foregoing, we can see there is always a need for us to pray for our leaders.
Not only are they completely human (capable of error), they are often the
object of series of temptations from the evil one. It takes the power of God to
avoid making such costly mistakes as we see in the case of Moses and Peter
today.
Today we
celebrate the life of Saint Dominic, an outstanding preacher. Born in old
Castile, Spain, he was trained for the priesthood by a priest-uncle, studied
the arts and theology, and became a canon of the cathedral at Osma. Dominic
fought against heresy in the church by preaching God’s word to the poor people.
His fellow preachers gradually became a community, and in 1215 he founded a
religious house at Toulouse, the beginning of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans.)
Today we rejoice with all the Dominican Fathers and Sisters, my very good
friends and especially give thanks to God for continuing in the footsteps of St.
Dominic. Their preaching, their teaching and their work of evangelisation has
greatly benefitted the church.
Let us
Pray: Lord Jesus, guard my thoughts, my words and my actions especially when I am
angry, unhappy or being tempted by the devil. Grant that I may never disappoint
you when I am carried away with emotions. Amen.
Be Happy.
Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Thursday of the
18th Week in Ordinary Time. Bible Study: Numbers 20:1-13, Psalm 95 and Matthew
16:13-23).
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