Thursday, February
16, 2017
(Note: I apologize for missing a reflection yesterday.)
In today’s Gospel passage, Peter
makes a great affirmation of faith when Jesus asks, “who do you say that I am?”
Peter’s answer: You are the Christ.
But a short time later, Peter has a hard time being told that Jesus would be
rejected, and killed, and rise on the third day, and he rebukes the Lord. Jesus
makes his well-known reply: “Get behind
me, Satan!” And He makes this rebuke: You
are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (See Mark 8:27-33)
I am reminded of this passage
from the Letter to the Romans:
How deep are the riches and the wisdom and
the knowledge of God! How inscrutable his judgments, how unsearchable his ways!
For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? (Romans
11:33-34)
When Jesus predicted His death,
it didn’t make any sense to Peter and so he resisted and rebuked the Lord for
saying such a thing. And so I ask you, how many times has something happened in
your own life that simply didn’t make sense, and if you tried to tell yourself
that it was God’s will (and it was, actually), you simply couldn’t make the
pieces fit together or be able to surrender to the circumstances? This happens
to all of us, doesn’t it? And so we need to be reminded, again and again, that we
simply cannot figure out what the Lord is thinking. He doesn’t always give
us that insight or wisdom. How often has a child asked you a question and you’ve
tried to answer, “You can’t understand this now, but when you grow up, it will
begin to make sense.” An answer like that is hard to accept, and yet, like it
or not, it is true. And so there are things in our life which we cannot figure
out yet and we will not be able to grasp for a long time to come. I don’t know
about you, but I have a few questions on my mind which I have had to accept
will not be answered for me until I am on the other side of the grave,
hopefully resting in the Lord—and yet by that time the questions might no
longer matter. That’s the way it is with us human beings.
I turn now to the book of
Wisdom, speaking about the Wisdom of God (which is often thought to be the Holy
Spirit, or perhaps even the Second Person of the Trinity, and which is often personified
as a woman):
Now with you is Wisdom, who knows your works
and was present when you made the world; who understands what is pleasing in
your eyes and what is conformable with your commands.
Send her forth from your holy heavens and
from your glorious throne dispatch her that she may be with me and work with
me, and that I may know what is your pleasure. (Wis 9:9-10)
Notice that there is a plea in
this passage that God send Wisdom to us, that we may begin to make sense of
things, and particularly to know what is God’s will for us at any given
moment and in any time of decision or choice. A good prayer to keep in mind. “Lord,
may your wisdom be with me.”
God bless you!
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