Ordinary time week 13, Mt 16, 13-19
Peter (Malcolm Guite)
Impulsive master of misunderstanding
you comfort me with all your big mistakes;
jumping the ship before you make the landing,
placing the bet before you know the stakes.
I love the way you step out without knowing,
the way you sometimes speak before you think,
the way your broken faith is always growing,
the way Jesus holds you even when you sink.
Born to a world that always tried to shame you,
your shaky ego vulnerable to shame,
I love the way that Jesus chose to name you,
before you knew how to deserve that name.
And in the end your Saviour let you prove that each denial is undone by love.
Paul (Malcolm Guite)
An enemy whom God has made a friend,
a righteous man discounting righteousness,
last to believe and first for God to send,
he found the fountain in the wilderness.
Thrown to the ground and raised at the same moment,
a prisoner who set his captors free,
a naked man with love his only garment,
a blinded man who helped the world to see,
a Jew who had been perfect in the law,
blesses the flesh of every other race
and helps them see what the apostles saw;
the glory of the Lord in Jesus’ face.
Strong in his weakness, joyful in his pains, and bound by love, he freed us from our chains.
Two great leaders; two great inspirations; two exemplarily discipleship; we, too, were called and chosen in baptism and given a special mission. Like them we have been given all that we need to fulfil our mission. As St John Henry Newman said:
“God has created me to do him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission; I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.”
by Fr Thomas O'BRIEN a.a