St Martin's & St Paul's
Parish Canterbury
St Martin's & St Paul's
Parish Canterbury
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When I was a child I had a dread of praise, because I feared that no sooner had I been praised for something than I would do something wrong and be criticised. To some extent that fear has gone with me into adult life; I don't like being too obvious or prominent; a bit odd perhaps for someone who is a parish priest, but then every role has its degrees of prominence and obscurity.
I feel rather sorry for St. Peter in this respect because he was the sort of person who always had to say something or do something: most accounts of the story we had read today show Peter being first praised by Jesus for identifying him as the Christ, the Son of God, and then verbally attacked by him for speaking the words of Satan, the words of temptation. Jesus' anger is understandable; we are always less tolerant when we are in situations in which we face stress and fear.
Jesus' own ministry carries some paradoxes of prominence and obscurity. What Jesus did made him popular and sought for; what he wanted was to avoid the risks and dangers of arousing unrealistic expectations. In the end, he knew that those same expectations, thwarted and frustrated, would take him to the cross, but he wanted time.
Our journey through Lent allows us too to take time; Lent is, like Advent, a gift of time, carved out against the business and distraction of life. Those busy things will take us where they usually do; Lent will take us to the heart of the sorrow of God in Jesus Christ, to the darkness of our own hearts, and to the hope of joy and salvation.
Amen
