Are We an Obstacle for Christ? ~ by Betty Alexis

In the first reading we saw that Jeremiah felt quite dejected and was persecuted by the masses because he spoke God's word to them. We learned that Jeremiah's suffering was so great that he seriously considered whether he should stop spreading those words to others. But God's word was so heavy on his heart, he just could not bring himself to do that. Many times we too, go through hardships and suffer like Jeremiah when we decide to follow Christ and spread His Word. We also consider giving up - and many of us do. However, we need to be more like Jeremiah. We need to have God's word as a "burning fire" in our hearts!

The second reading encouraged us to always offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. We are to prepare ourselves to accept our own sufferings; and to remember that no suffering we endure could ever compare to the suffering Jesus did for us.

Today's Gospel was an affirmation of the first and second readings - we must suffer for Christ, if we are to truly serve Him! In the Gospel, we saw Jesus rebuking Satan, because Satan tried to use Peter to mislead Him.

One rich lesson was that we must follow Jesus, not go before Him. In life, we should not be an obstacle for Christ, but rather always to focus on heavenly things. We were left with some food for thought with the question: "Are you really prepared to follow Christ?" Another way to say this: "Are you really prepared to die for Christ?"

Let's prepare ourselves to accept our sufferings for Christ's sake. Like Jeremiah, we must always strive for that "burning fire" in our hearts from which we get our strength.


~ Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time ~


* Image found at
http://bible1.wordpress.com/2007/04/17/matthew-16/