One to Imitate

Gospel: Matthew 16: 13-23

All of us have heroes and people we admire in our lives.  These are people who have inspired us in our professional and personal lives, as well as in our spiritual lives.  To the extent that it makes us a better person, these admirations are good things for us.  When, however, we become blind apologists for everything the person ever said or did, this phenomenon becomes unhealthy.  That is the lesson in today's Gospel portion.

Peter has great moments in the Gospels, and today we see one where he shares his insight about who Jesus is.  For this insight he is rewarded.  At the same time and almost in the same breath, we also see Peter's limitations, for which he receives a painful rebuke from the Lord.  We can acknowledge simultaneously both Peter's great moments as well as his great failures, and we can do this because he is not our ultimate model of faith anyway.  It is the Lord Jesus.

The Gospels were written so that we might follow the teaching and example of the Lord Jesus in our lives, not anyone else.  The disciples in the Gospel stories are designed to be mirrors through which we see ourselves: people attempting to follow the Lord - sometimes having great moments, sometimes failing very badly.  But all the while our focus and our model is Jesus alone.