God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you

31 AUGUST (Mt 16,21-27)

Jesus is from the truth of the Father. Peter is from the falsehood of men. The Lord reveals to Peter and the other Eleven that he will go to Jerusalem, but not to conquer it, as David did, placing in it his royal throne, and from there beginning the conquest of the world. He will go to the Holy City to be condemned by the leaders of its people, delivered to the Gentiles and be killed and be raised again on the third day. His throne is the Cross. His exaltation is death. His glory is the denial by all. This is the truth that the Father has written for him on the roll of his book; and he will have to live this truth. There are no other truths For Him, and He might learn no others.

But Peter is from the falsehood of men. For him, the Messiah is a revived David. As David defeated all the enemies and subdued them, so must Jesus the Lord do. He must eliminate all those who have deprived the people of the Lord of their sovereign liberty. He cannot tolerate that the children of Israel are subjected to a harsh slavery by the Romans invaders. For this reason, he must first conquer Jerusalem and from there begin the journey of redemption, liberation and subjugation of all peoples to Him. This is the view according to men of Peter. He wants his master to submit to this vision. He must be the Messiah that gives death, not the Messiah that suffers death. These two views are irreconcilable, as always, are irreconcilable the vision according to God in every other field and that according to human beings.

This truth must be applied to the entire earthly existence: from conception of life to its natural end, passing through the family, and investing every other relationship that might be established with God, with men, with things, with animals, with science, technology, politics, economics and finance. Whatever concerns man is always to be included in these two visions: according to God and according to men, according to human religions or according to most pure faith, according to worldly philosophy or, according to the Holy Spirit science. The result is not the same. It is diametrically opposed. The view according to God creates the fruit of life, even if apparently it seems to lead to death. The view according to men produces a harvest of death, even if the evidence would seem life-giving. However, it is a poisoned life.

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.

Jesus asks his disciples for a radical choice. He asks them for a total self-denial, inviting them to take up their cross daily and follow him. But what is exactly the self-denial? It is the full, total and forever abandonment of the vision according to the world to be always according to the vision of God. This vision is not found in ancient or modern tomes of theology, exegesis, hermeneutics of the Word of the Lord. It is given by the Holy Spirit day by day. Perfect way of the vision according to God is Jesus Christ. Way is the Church and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit in the Church and the Church in the Spirit. But not every church is the way to the knowledge of the vision according to God, but only the one of the Church founded on Peter, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Outside of this church vision according to God and vision according to men are so mixed that it is impossible to distinguish between them.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us according to God’s vision.