Today’s readings: Jeremiah 20,7-9; Romans 12,1-2; Matthew 16, 21-27.
Living up to one’s faith commitment is no joke and not at all easy. In times and contexts when being Christian was almost a cultural phenomenon, the demands mostly highlighted were allegiance to the Church’s authority, blanket acceptance of doctrine and sacramental practice. Heaven was practically guaranteed, pending respect for those precepts.
But that was not how it was meant to be. Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke of “cheap grace” to demonstrate how, along the way, we became minimalists where the demands of faith were concerned. Faith involves us passionately and emotively. You can hardly speak about your faith without being autobiographical.
Jeremiah’s confession in today’s first reading is on this wavelength, just as Augustine’s own Confessions stand out in the history of Christianity as a classic example of narrative faith. It’s terrible to read from Jeremiah today referring to the Lord and saying: “I will not think about Him, I will not speak in His name any more”.
Many times in the life of whoever claims to be a believer, having to radically change one’s frame of mind and one’s way of seeing things is too hard. Believing is never plain sailing; very often it creates discomfort, and at times, as Jeremiah says, it becomes unbearable. St Paul, in one of the most basic New Testament texts, speaks of a “new mind”, a radical change of perspective on life.
This radicalism can make of one’s struggle to keep the faith a personal drama similar to those of Jeremiah and Peter in the gospel. The drama of Jeremiah’s call to be a prophet comes out very clearly in today’s reading. His faith drama drives him to extremes, taking God to task for calling him and suffering the impossibility to bear being ridiculed and not listened to.
This is Jeremiah’s telling autobiography speaking of God as seducing: “You have overpowered me: you were the stronger”. It’s a terrible internal turmoil which only in time brought Jeremiah himself to acknowledge that “there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones”. Because if authentic faith entails an internal conflict and struggle, yet it can also be experienced as a magic moment which opens for us new horizons and offers new paths of solace and salvation.
The element of struggle will always be a mark of any faith journey. The desert Fathers, the Fathers of the Church, both Eastern and Western, the great mystics of the Church, all speak of spiritual combat. And it always boils down to combat between loyalties on one hand to the world, on the other to the callings of the Spirit or the voice of the interior teacher.
Jeremiah in the Old Testament and St Peter in the New are clearly two biblical beacons of authentic and suffered faith in the Lord. Yet, confronted by certain demands on the part of the Lord, they both go haywire and lose perspective to the extent that they literally give up. They both stood up to God’s way of doing things and of perceiving reality.
Today’s gospel marks a turning-point in Jesus’ journey and ministry. With his statement about his upcoming destiny at the hands of his detractors, whatever follows takes on a different tone and flavour. It was difficult till the end for Jesus to explain this to his companions and, we have to say it, with some he failed to educate them to the brand of Messiahship he stood for.
Peter’s resistance in this text contrasts heavily with his confession in last week’s gospel for which he was commended. Yet it confirms that resistance, lack of understanding, internal turmoil, and consistent dark nights all make part of the dynamics of faith. Faith in Jesus as Lord and saviour is not just a verbal confession. It entails a long and winding road along which the cross and whatever it comprehends constitutes the key to life’s mysteries.