Thursday in the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time ‘b’

Mt 16:13-23

Interesting thing happens in today’s gospel reading. Shortly after praising Peter for His deep faith in proclaiming Jesus as Christ and the Son of God, Jesus scolds him for not being able to accept the will of the Lord, His fatal passion and death. Jesus uses very strong words toward Peter. He says: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” Peter didn’t mean to offend the Lord, he just couldn’t accept the fact the Jesus would die on the cross. And Peter’s words don’t seem sinful. He wants to protect Jesus, nothing wrong with that. However, in reality it was Satan who manipulated Peter to try and change the will of God. And here is the lesson for us - we must always be careful and ask God to help us to recognize the evil that wants to tempt us to do or say something not according with God’s plan. Evil will always seem attractive and innocent. That’s why sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish between what is wrong and what is right.