I was thinking how fitting the Gospel reading is for us in our times. Today, St Peter rebukes the Lord saying,” Lord, forbid that this happens to you.” It is funny but to this day we still think the same thing, that because God is here, nothing bad is going to happen. We can live sinful lives and as long as we can hide it, as long as it looks good, then everything is good. When one lady went to enter the Catholic Church, one of her secular friends told her she was hooking up with a very messy bunch, but a bunch that will be here for a long time.
If they didn’t want Jesus to die, then they should have repented. Our sins caused the death of Jesus. Appearing perfect is not what Jesus and God are looking for. If we look at what is happening in the Church today – the shock at another Church scandal, the shock of bishops and administration covering it up – we say, “Lord, forbid this to happen.” It is so shameful, so humiliating, when the cost of our sins are paraded before the public eye. The Pharisees had a religion based on outward perfection that no one could live in, they could only pretend that they lived like that. We are doing the same thing, pretending that we are perfect. It is common to hear people with their belief shattered that such and such priest could have done these things or that a bishop would cover up what is happening and pretend that everything is okay. We, like Peter, are asking God to cover up what is called the scandal of the cross. We just call it scandal of the Church. We can lament these things are going on, but if we really want to do something then we must stop the lies in our own personal life. We have to stop presenting ourselves as perfect. If we forbid the scandal, we forbid the truth. We forbid that humans will be a part of the Church. We should thank God that this truth has come out. Pray for the victims, lament our own wickedness, our sinfulness, that we justify as “not as bad as others” and confess our sins.
Jesus is inviting us to live the truth that no human is without sin. We all need to stop hiding and confess. The Church is broken for broken people. We have to humble ourselves if we are going to allow God to help us remove sin. Peter tells us today that Jesus called him Satan when he tried to cover up the scandal. It is pretty humble of Peter to tell us that is the rebuke he received. Let us confess our sins and not use confession to hide but to convert. Secrets are from the devil so we can live awful lives, sinful lives, and still look good and go to hell.
God calls us to live the perfection, to seek conversion and not merely to hide our sins.