Potpourri!: No Shortcuts ---!

No shortcuts! That's how Monsignor explained the gist of today's gospel reading. I did not intend for this blog to be "religious" or anything of that sort. But after hearing the essence of this passage, I decided to write about it just so it won't fade into the recesses of my brain (again).

Today's Gospel came from Mt 16:21-27

²¹ From then onwards Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go toJerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day.
²² Then, taking him aside, Peter started to rebuke him. 'Heaven preserve you, Lord,' he said, 'this must not happen to you.'
²³ But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because you are thinking not as God thinks but as human beings do.'
²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.
²⁵ Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake willfind it.
²⁶ What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life? Or what can anyone offer in exchange for his life?
²⁷ 'For the Son of man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then hewill reward each one according to his behaviour.

Monsignor began to talk about how ironic Jesus' treatment of Peter is after praising him last week. (...Jesus replied, 'Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.

¹⁸ So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it.

¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.', Mt 16:17-19) While Peter obviously became vulnerable like most of us, the essence of Jesus' remark was His preference to perform things properly according to the will of His Father. He refused to go through "shortcuts."

For many of us, we bypass bureaucracy and hence succumb to bribery to get our transactions done -- fast and hassle-free. We try to achieve power and position to provide ease and security -- at the expense of others of course. We'd rather pay for convenience than go through the rigors of labor and sacrifice to get something we want -- be it food, recognition, protection, etc. Oh, we are even willing to kick some *ss just to feed our bloated egos... Nobody wanted to be trampled upon. Everybody wants to be on top. In the front line. In charge.

But not Jesus. Not the Son of God.

He welcomed the opportunity to suffer and die for our sake. He obeyed His Father without any protest. He did not want shortcuts in order to save us. He, the Only Son of the Almighty, who was very much in the position to beg and convince His Father to spare Him from the agonies that awaited Him chose to submit Himself to the Will of His Father.

He could have opted for a shortcut and reaped a seat immediately beside His Father in Heaven. But if He did, then this...