Fr. Albert
St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia
Is Peter making a mistake? Is it a mistake to trust this Jesus? In the course of a single conversation, He went from promising the keys of the kingdom of heaven to calling Peter “Satan.” Peter was just trying to be a good friend, trying to save Jesus from pain and difficulty. Wouldn’t you do the same for your closest friend? Instead, there is an insult. How could anyone follow this man? For two very good reasons.
First, we must ask, is what Jesus teaches true? If it is, then there is no insult, but rather a misunderstanding. Jesus is not being schizophrenic when he changes his tone with Peter, but he is holding dearly to a truth that is hard to accept. Death on the cross is really the way this world is redeemed. If Peter is to be the first Pope, he needs think not as man thinks, but as God thinks. That is why Jesus harshly jars Peter out of this misconception.
Still, why follow a man with such a difficult approach? “The Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.” He will repay all our deeds – if this last judgment is real, then it is urgent for us to get our “conduct” in order. Since Jesus is the Son of Man who comes in judgment, then who better to follow in preparing for that day? If that judgment has an eternal consequence, then the price of suffering and death is worth it.
In other words, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” That is a logical question. If what Jesus says is true, any reasonable person would have to agree that the best course of action is to follow this man, even if that means carrying the cross – even if that means torture and death.
But the second reason to is a bit more mysterious. Jeremiah the prophet leads a life of great suffering for God. Why? “You duped me O lord and I let myself be duped.” Did God lie to Jeremiah? No, one translation reads “You have seduced me O Lord, and I let myself be seduced.” Jeremiah was taken in by the sweetness of God, but has ended up with a rather bitter experience. And yet, he does not stop. This seduction, this connection to God is like a “fire burning in [Jeremiah’s] heart, imprisoned in [his] bones.”
And the Psalm takes up a similar theme. “O God, for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.” We are seeing passion and desire: a longing for God. “My Soul is thirsting for you O Lord my God.” Even Peter’s rebuke is an expression of this thirst. His protectiveness of Jesus comes from a love for his friendship. This love is stronger than a single argument and stronger even than the insult of being called Satan. The power of this mysterious attachment motivates Peter to push through the confusion, to trust Jesus even when it means going to the cross.
And that is exactly what it does mean. In the end, we will need both reasons to follow Jesus: for Truth and for Love. Some of us come to know love because we seek Truth only to discover the truth that God is Love. Others follow Love only to learn that love without truth is unreliable and even quite dangerous – that love without truth is not love, but simply affection and attachment. Often enough, we alternate between the two, haphazardly seeking some kind of balance.
And this is not just some poetic idea, but a belief – a conviction – with real-world implications. Jeremiah’s country was full of sinfulness, dishonesty, adultery, idolatry, and even political turmoil. Jeremiah was called to preach the truth and all it got him was a great deal of pain and rejection. His message was unpopular – he even got death threats – but he did not stop because he knew the truth and because he loved God and the people of God.
It is often the same with us. Just this past week, Evangelicals released the “Nashville Statement,” which explains a biblical Christian response to the LGBT movement. Of course, it was quite controversial. Catholics are even arguing with each other over this statement. The disagreement boils down to this question: does the Nashville statement have both Truth and Love? Some emphasize one and exclude the other. From what I’ve seen, the best response is from Cardinal Robert Sarah, who published a response in the Wall Street Journal. If you have any interest in this story, I suggest you readthat.
But what about your response? What do you believe about the LGBT movement? How do you respond to people in that movement? If, right now, you are eager to point out what is wrong… if your only response is “it’s sinful and bad for our country,” then you might be a little too focused on Truth without enough Love. But if your only response is “we shouldn’t judge” or “it’s not fair to tell them they can’t be with the people the love,” you might have a misunderstanding of what Love is or not enough concern for the Truth.
Some of us have a natural tendency to focus on judgments and facts. Others are naturally inclined to just be nice and simply get along with people, even if those people are doing something wrong. Whatever your default position is, Jesus is asking you to deliberately consider the other half of the equation. Try to be compassionate, to understand how difficult it is to have those desires or to be genuinely confused about your identity as a man or woman. Try to realize that only the Truth sets us free, that encouraging a person to commit sin is not love – it is selfish.
Above all, realize that Jesus Christ is at the heart of everything: a perfect fusion of truth and love. Yes, his teachings can be difficult and make us very unpopular, but he isn’t asking us to do anything he didn’t do himself. If Jesus had not been rejected and condemned, we wouldn’t be saved. Yes, following Jesus’ example of patience and love toward sinners might be uncomfortable and confusing, but if he wasn’t that way, every one of us would be condemned.
What we say and do matters. The Son of Man will come and he will repay each of us according to our conduct. This is good news and bad news. It’s bad if we are too eager to condemn or too eager to simply get along. It’s bad news if we insist on “thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
But it’s good news if we deny ourselves, if we deny our first instincts and dig deeper. It’s good if we recognize that the cross has two arms: Truth and Love, Love and Truth. If we accept both arms of the cross, if we pick it up, carry it, and lose our lives on it for the sake of Jesus Christ, then it is very good news that he will repay us for our conduct. Because that repayment… is eternal life.