GET BEHIND ME, SATAN

Is 50,5-9a; Ps 114; Jm 2,14-18; Mk 8,27-35
16 SEPTEMBER
From the First Book of the Chronicles we know that Satan is the spirit of evil that puts in the hearts of men thoughts contrary to the thoughts of God. It suffices one accepted thought and the whole world could be destroyed. David listened to the thought of Satan and cost him the death of seventy thousand Israelites. A very high number for a single thought.

A satan rose up against Israel, and he enticed David into taking a census of Israel. David therefore said to Joab and to the other generals of the army, “Go, find out the number of the Israelites from Beer-sheba to Dan, and report back to me that I may know their number.” But Joab replied: “May the Lord increase his people a hundredfold! My lord king, are not all of them my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord seek to do this thing? Why will he bring guilt upon Israel?” However, the king’s command prevailed over Joab, who departed and traversed all of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem. Joab reported the result of the census to David: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in all Israel one million one hundred thousand, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand. Levi and Benjamin, however, he did not include in the census, for the king’s command was repugnant to Joab. This command displeased God, who began to punish Israel. Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. Take away your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.” Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, in these words: “Go, tell David: Thus says the Lord: I offer you three alternatives; choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you.” Accordingly, Gad went to David and said to him; “Thus says the Lord: Decide now – will it be three years of famine; or three months of fleeing your enemies, with the sword of your foes ever at your back; or three days of the Lord’s own sword, a pestilence in the land, with the Lord’s destroying angel in every part of Israel? Therefore choose: What answer am I to give him who sent me?” Then David said to Gad: “I am in dire straits. But I prefer to fall into the hand of the Lord, whose mercy is very great, than into the hands of men.” Therefore the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel died. God also sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem; but as he was on the point of destroying it, the Lord saw and decided against the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, “Enough now! Stay your hand!” (1Cr 21,1-15).

If Jesus had listened to the voice of Satan, which manifested itself through the voice of Peter, not seventy-seven thousand men would have remained in death, but all of humanity. Instead Jesus is the strong man. He knows the wiles of Satan and rejects them firmly. He knows in the Spirit of the Lord and in the Spirit of the Lord rejects them.

Now Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Messiah.” Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “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 and that of the gospel will save it.

Let us think today of the many thoughts of Satan man welcomes with ease. If only one thought can destroy humanity, let us imagine for a moment how it could be for man if he walks with the thoughts of the prince of darkness. He accepted the thought of Satan and causes millions and millions of deaths with abortion. He accepted the thought on divorce and millions and millions of families are destroyed. He is welcoming the thought on gender and in a few years the gender difference will be abolished with disastrous consequences. Today, man seems a true ally of Satan, indeed he has substituted himself for him.

Immaculate Virgin, Angels and Saints, liberate Christians from this imprisonment of death.