1) Jesus takes his disciples to Caesarea Philippi near pagan temples and asks who they say he is. Peter correctly replies that Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus says he will build his church on Peter. 2) When Jesus foretells his suffering and death, Peter denies this will happen and Jesus rebukes him, calling him Satan. Peter's insight came from God but his denial came from human thinking. 3) We must discern whether our thoughts come from our loving inner voice reflecting God's guidance, or from our ego and mental voice which can lead us to act in unloving ways. We should follow the former by leading with love, care, honesty and forgiveness of others.

1. 12 September 21 24th
Sunday in Ordinary Time Princeton, NJ
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Taking this Gospel story as it appears in both Mark and Matthew give us the full account of Jesus leading his
disciples to the region of Caesarea Philippi. So, to get a better understanding of this Gospel we need to look at the
dialogue and location of this story.
For Jesus takes his followers on a 25-mile hike from the Sea of Galilee, to just outside Caesarea Philippi to the
base of a 300-foot rock terrace upon which stands a temple to the Roman Emperor Augustus. And into the side of
this rock face are carved out niches with statues and idols placed to honor several pagan gods. Using this
background of false gods, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” And it is Peter who replies, “You
are the Messiah - the Christ.” To which Jesus replies: “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my
Church…and I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven”
Then Jesus goes on to tell them that he will suffer greatly, will be killed and on the third day raised, all of which
brings an immediate response of denial by Peter that no such thing shall ever happen. And Jesus rebukes Peter,
saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.”
So how did Peter get it so right that Jesus uses Peter as the foundation of his Church and then minutes later Peter
gets it so wrong, he is called Satan? The answer, and today’s lesson, are rooted in the source of Peter’s
comments. First, we hear that Peter calls Jesus the Messiah to which Jesus says that that answer did not come
from flesh and blood – meaning it was not something that could have been derived from human thought – but was
revealed to Peter through the heavenly Father. On the reverse, when he protested about Jesus having to suffer and
die, Jesus told Peter that he was thinking not as God does, but as humans do…and of the necessity to take up our
cross and follow him.
So why the big swing with Peter? First, we find him comfortable with grace and glory and filled with heavenly
insight and the next moment, faced with the suffering and death of his friend, his human thoughts have the ‘rock’ of
Peter being called out as a stumbling stone by Christ. Part of Peter’s challenge was his own personal expectation
that the Messiah would go to battle and defeat the multitude of armies and would reign from on high as King,
wearing a crown of gold. But when Christ explains that as Messiah he will suffer greatly and will die as a King
wearing a crown of thorns…it shatters what Peter and the others expected, and, filled with fear, Peter’s response
comes from his human emotions and thoughts.
Can you imagine how much Peter’s head had to be spinning – at one moment life is great, he is getting the keys to
heaven and has the Messiah on his side….and then when things point to a direction he does not want, he is
remanded to get behind Christ, take up his cross and to follow.
So, by looking at the full story spread over Mark and Matthew, we are given two different voices that can influence
our spirit. There is God’s voice – or what some call the inner voice, that feeling of sudden knowing, Kairos time –
which leads us to a knowledge that has us acting with unconditional love towards ourselves and others. And then
we have our mental voice – the home of our ego - which is not necessarily governed by love and often influences
our spirit to be unloving by encouraging us to dismiss that competing inner voice that we each have.
And perhaps the easiest way to discern the difference between the two voices is how we react to each situation we
face. For when we find ourselves defending our truth, our world, deciding who is acceptable and who is not – we
are thinking as humans do, with our mental voice. Often this type of thought pattern is fear based. And probably
more so than ever, with the continuation of COVID, Afghanistan and the recent natural disasters of fire, wind and
rain – all in the shadow of this 20th anniversary of 9/11, many are feeling that we are living in some of the most
fearful times of our lives. Fear – which is the opposite of love forces our head thinking to take over and just as we
heard in today’s Gospel, it becomes a stumbling block to the road ahead of us.
But when we find ourselves in a situation where we lead with love and care and honesty for others…where we are
no longer pushing others away from us to where we feel they belong…when we take the time to, using the words
we hear today, “to deny oneself” which really just means give less priority to oneself and recognize everyone as a
child of God, where we love by loving and heal by healing and forgive by forgiving – then we are listening to that
internal voice of God - for this is the type of knowledge that only comes from the Creator.

2. 12 September 21 24th
Sunday in Ordinary Time Princeton, NJ
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Franciscan Richard Rohr I think best sum it up when he wrote,
“If you can trust and listen to your inner divine image, your whole-making instinct, or your True Self, you will
act from your best, largest, kindest, most inclusive self. If any thought feels too harsh, shaming, or
diminishing of yourself or others, it is not likely the voice of God but the ego. If something comes towards
you with grace and can pass through you and toward others with grace, you can trust it as the voice of
God. For we must listen to what is supporting us. We must listen to what is encouraging us. We must listen
to what is urging us. We must listen to what is alive in us.”
So, listen to this story I recently came across – an example of a woman who listened to her inner voice…and made
a difference in another’s life:
Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours,
I heard an announcement:“Ifanyonein the vicinity ofGate A -4 understands any Arabic, please come to the
gate immediately.” Well Gate A-4 happened to be my gate so offI went.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpledto the floor,
wailing. “Help,” said the flight agent. “Talk to her. What is her problem?We told her the flight was going to
be late and she did this.”
I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly in my best Arabic. The minute she hearda
few words she recognized she stoppedcrying. She thoughtthe flight had been cancelled entirely and needed
to be in El Paso for medical treatmentthe nextday. I said, “No, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just later, who is
picking you up?Let’s call him.”
We called her son. Speaking to him in English I told him I would stay with his mothertill we got on the
plane and would ride next to her. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun ofit.
Then we called my dad and they spoke for a while in Arabic and found out that they had ten shared friends.
Hours went by and by now she was laughing a lot, telling us ofher life. Then she pulled from her bag a sack
of homemade mamool cookies —little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts and
was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declinedone. It was
like a sacrament. The travelerfrom Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo —
we were all covered with the same powderedsugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.
And then the airline broke out free apple juiceand two little girls from ourflight ran around serving it and
they, too, werecovered with powderedsugar. And I noticed my new best friend had a potted plant poking
out ofher bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country tradition. Always carry a
plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.
And as I looked around that gate oflate and weary ones I thought: This is the world I want to live in. The
shared world. The loving world. The caring world. For once the crying ofconfusion stopped and people
listened…not a single person at that gate was apprehensiveor fearful about any other person around them.
So, I invite us to take some time this week to examine where our thoughts are coming from when faced with
different situations. Is it coming from our inner loving voice that represents God’s help and guidance in our life? Or
it is our mental voice which competes with God’s voice and will routinely influence our spirit to speak and act in an
unloving way? For how we listen, how we react, how we reach out is not a choice we get to make on our own. For
we are all connected to a natural guidance where we just have to be willing to give up sole control over our life,
carry our crosses and surrender ourselves to our inner voice of God’s abundant love.