Sunday 22A: "Get behind me, Satan!"

TWENTY-SECOND Sunday
Jeremiah 20: 7-9; Psalm 63; Romans 12:1-2
Matthew 16: 21-27 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
"Get out of my sight, you Satan! You are not judging by God' standards but by man's!"
In the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, chapter 16, verses twenty-one to twenty-seven, our Lord words seem to be spoken in anger, and perhaps they are. They appear to be words of condemnation, for anyone who is the equal of Satan is surely to be considered damned as is Satan, eternally separated from God. 

Christ faced many temptations along the road to Calvary and the fulfillment of the Father's perfect will. Among these, the encounter with Satan in the desert. And not only there, also in those who align themselves with Satan by denying Christ's role as Savior from sin. Avoiding the pain and suffering of the passion and death would be just such a denial of His true mission as Redeemer. Hence Christ's words which seem to identify Peter with the Devil.
"Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. (Mt 16:21-23) This is why Christ vanquished the tempter for us: 'For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.' " (Heb 4:15) By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert." (CCC 540)
Authentic faith enables us to desire above all to see ourselves honestly, in the way that God sees us, to repent of our sins and then to live according to our need for God. "Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Total dedication to Christ and to His Gospel is rewarded with the total gift of God's love and embrace in the heavenly kingdom. Heaven begins with Christian commitment here and now, without delay or excuses. -Fr. Cusick