“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a
time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall... think of it, always."
- Ghandi
(. . . "the way of truth and love:" how are you called to walk more deeply along that way these days?)
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1 Pt 5:1-4; PS 23:1-3a, 4, 5, 6
Mt 16:13-19
When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea
Philippi
he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the
prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are
you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven.”
Christianity and Spirituality monthly forum March 7, 2024, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. CST Topic: "The Four Biases," by Sr. Carla Mae Streeter, OP More info via the link below
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Reflection on the Scriptures
The Gospel reveals to us who Jesus is but also who Peter is. Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I find it interesting that Matthew here
refers to Peter as Simon Peter. He is writing in Greek and the name Jesus gave Simon in Aramaic, Kephas or Cephas, is translated as Peter in Greek. Peter now has two names (Simon and Peter) but in English it’s actually three (Simon, Cephas, and Peter which is the Greek translation of Cephas). The fact though is that this man is no longer Simon; he is Cephas/Peter which means rock. Jesus said that Simon was Cephas and on this cephas he would build his Church. No matter who has been the cephas on
the throne of St. Cephas, the Church is secure. It’s founded on a rock. Jesus is the chief Shepherd. He will not allow his Church to be ruined. In fact, the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church. We are not playing defense. The Church is battering down the gates of hell and those gates cannot stand. -by George Butterfield
St. John of the Cross and the Beginning of Contemplation
by James Arraj From St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. J. Jung, Part II, Chapter 4. Inner Growth Books, 1986.
Perceptibility
Finally, it is in the same way that we should understand John's subtle analysis of the very pure soul who receives a lofty and pure contemplation, and thus an experience that seems obscure and
imperceptible in relationship to the working of the natural faculties.(42) It falls into a kind of forgetfulness, even for hours at a time, "and, when the soul returns to itself, it believes that less than a moment has passed, or no time at all."(43) Here St. John is working on a much more lofty plane than the common experience of someone who cannot meditate and yet hopes that something somehow is happening. Even in the kind of imperceptibility he is describing, there is some kind of powerful
absorption taking place. And this forgetfulness happens only very seldom. "Only when God suspends in the soul the exercise of all its faculties."(44) Then even for this special case St. John concludes, "For, when it (the contemplative knowledge) is communicated to the will also, which happens almost invariably, the soul does not cease to understand in the very least degree, if it will reflect hereon, that it is employed and occupied in this knowledge, inasmuch as it is conscious of a sweetness
of love therein, without particular knowledge or understanding of that which it loves."(45)
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