My Friend Peter

Google Image

If you’re a Christian, or seeking God in the Christian tradition, do you ever feel like you don’t quite measure up?

I do, and I mentioned this in a roundtable (literally) discussion with fellow parishioners in our parish of Pax Christi last year and an elderly woman (about my age, that is), responded, “Did Jesus ever ask you to measure up?”

I didn’t know how to answer that question at the time, but after thinking about it, I think I would answer, “Well, no, not me personally, but there are plenty of instances in the gospels where Jesus appears to require perfection or near-perfection.

“You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” comes to mind. Some commentators say that means that you should strive to be as close to God’s perfection as possible. Maybe, but that’s not how the translation goes.

Do We Reflect Our Beliefs in Our Lives?

I think this way not only about me, but about Christians and other religious people. I write often in this blog about why people – especially young people - have stopped going to church or have given up on God. What I haven’t mentioned is the part of believers in this phenomenon. Do we reflect our beliefs in the way we live?

We may go to Mass but don’t forgive. We may go to church services but hold grudges. We may serve on church boards but don’t welcome strangers and foreigners. We may receive communion but don’t recognize Christ in others. We may profess a religion but place our politics above what our religion teaches.

“This people honors me with their lips,” says Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, quoting the prophet Isaiah, “but their heart is far from me.”

Google Image
Believe it or not, one of the moderating factors for me for the “be perfect” kinds of gospel passages is the apostle Peter. I love Peter. For me, he represents all of us who strive but inevitably fail in “quite measuring up.”

He’s also the most interesting of the apostles, in my opinion, an impulsive guy who often puts his foot in his mouth, often thinks of himself first and was often the target of Jesus’ rebukes.

 But he’s all heart. His character is one reason to believe in the gospels’ genuineness: if the first century authors of the Christian Bible were merely writing public relations tracts, as some critics say, they certainly didn’t do a good job of painting their leader, Peter, in a good light.

Peter jumps in the lake in a faithless attempt to walk on water to get to Jesus. He’s like the “fool who rushes in” when witnessing Jesus’ transfiguration, impulsively suggesting the construction of 3 tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. He contradicts Jesus when Jesus tries to tell the disciples about the upcoming trip to Jerusalem and its fatal outcome. There, after swearing allegiance, Peter cowers before people accusing him of being a Jesus crony and denies even knowing Jesus.

The Rock

Peter clearly didn’t measure up, but Jesus loved him and named him leader of the twelve apostles, the “rock” on which to build church. For us Catholics, he became the first “pope.”

I know the woman at our round-table discussion was right. We need not worry about “measuring up.” I know by faith that God loves us unconditionally. But I believe many of us are accustomed to use the world’s criteria in judging ourselves and others.

The Bible contains a lot of passages that are poorly explained, but ultimately, I believe people searching for God in the Christian tradition should pay a lot of attention to Jesus’ words in Matthew’s gospel: “Judge not, that you may not be judged.”

And that applies to oneself as well as to others. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 14, 2024 at 3:22 PM

    Thank you, Tom I think many have placed their politics over the practice our faith. with that has resulted in a church very right wing approach the practice of religion. Gerald

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Gospel of The Little Prince

Image
  Attention all those concerned only with “matters of great consequence:” Is it possible that you’ve become someone you didn’t want to be, having strayed far from the innocence and simplicity of childhood? That’s the main question asked in The Little Prince, which Netflix, the streaming video service, has added to its repertoire of movies and TV shows. Though not a big fan of animated flicks, I was a big fan of the book, The Little Prince, back in the 1970s when it became extremely popular in the U.S. It was first published in French and English in New York in 1943 as a novella by French aristocrat, writer, poet, and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery , who disappeared while piloting a Free French Army plane the following year over the Mediterranean Sea. Nearly Two Million Copies “The novella is the fourth most-translated book in the world and was voted the best book of the 20th century in France,” says Wikipedia. “Translated into more than 250 language...
Read more

‘Spiritual but Not Religious,’ Revisited

Image
Google Image I’ve expressed several times in these blogs my skepticism about declarations by some of our contemporaries that they are “spiritual but not religious.” Much of the skepticism results from the false dichotomy this entails, as if the spiritual and religious are mutually exclusive. Spirituality, after all, is the whole point of being religious. With the exception of some forms of Buddhism, all the major religions aim to bring people closer to God, who is “spiritual.” St. Paul, among the earliest leaders of Christianity, wrote that he is imparting a teaching “not taught by human wisdom but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit.” But Daniel Horan, Franciscan priest, theologian and author, wrote in a recent edition of the National Catholic Reporter: “What if our starting point in thinking about what it means to be a person in communion with God, oneself and the world was not reduced to external expressions of institutional belo...
Read more

Clinging to Archie Bunker's God

Image
Google Image Archie Bunker, the character masterfully played by the late Carroll O’Conner in the 1970s TV comedy “All in the Family,” had his own take on the traditional Christian doctrine of the inerrancy of the Bible. “God don’t make no mistakes,” declared Archie. “That’s how he got to be God.” For those too young to remember Archie, who in 2005 was listed as number 1 on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters, Wikipedia says Bunker was characterized by his bigotry towards “… blacks, Hispanics, "Commies," gays, hippies, Jews, Asians, Catholics, "women's libbers," and Polish-Americans….” Bunker was presented as a Christian, however, and “… often misquotes the Bible. He takes pride in being religious, although he rarely attends church services ….” An Anonymous Contributor Sister Mary Matilda, my eighth grade teacher, would accuse me of being uncharitable but I imagine that an anonymous contributor to a recent newspaper column is an “Archie Bunke...
Read more