Fr Denis Hooper OSB
When I first looked over today’s readings I was struck by the very first line of the first reading from Jeremiah: “you enticed me Lord, and I let myself be enticed” whilst in another version of this reading I saw that it says, “you duped me Lord, and I let myself be duped.” To be duped is to be deceived. To be enticed is to be tempted. Two different meanings. Jeremiah felt duped and even enticed because God did not fit into the vision of what Jeremiah thought God should be.
The disgraced American financier Bernie Madhoff duped and enticed many wealthy people out of their money – he persuaded millionaires and billionaires who should have known better to put their millions into his ponzy schemes. By the time he was caught it was too late for his victims and he had cheated them out of hundreds of millions!
Words change their meaning over time and in a short number of years many words in our past vocabulary mean exactly the opposite to what they mean now: I heard a golfer recently describe a Big Bertha golf club as “this bad boy” – bad used to mean evil – now bad means good. “Sick” used to mean being ill – now it means great – “these are sick boots.” “Friend” used to mean just that – now it means a list in your contacts. Gay was once short for the name, Gabriel. The warden in the movie Cool Hand Luke used a line that sums up well the
issues we have with the changing of the meanings of words when he said: “what we have here is a failure to communicate.”
You can feel Jesus’ frustration with Peter in today’s Gospel – a case of failing to communicate – when after all they have been through together, three years of it – Peter still doesn’t understand the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ mission. Last week’s Gospel has Peter filled with the Holy Spirit saying to Jesus “you are the Christ” and Jesus telling Peter that he will be the rock on which his Church will be built.
This week we can see Peter as a sort of mouthpiece for the devil. Up to now in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus has been travelling around with his disciples teaching and healing and for the most part it has been a very pleasant experience for all concerned. What’s not to like about following someone with the powers Jesus has? Healing the sick; changing water into wine. His celebrity sort of rubs off on you and you can bask in the shadow of his glory. But now the story is about to change and Jesus now knows that he must go to Jerusalem to face his death and resurrection. Peter will have none of this and says he won’t let it happen. Peter’s attitude is “if it’s not broken, why fix it?” So, Jesus must rebuke him and tell him this must happen and that no one, especially Peter, should get in the way of it.
We are all like Peter – we can blow hot and cold. We are heading into the Rugby World Cup. It is just pure coincidence that I am wearing green today. Come on the boys in green! Rugby and many team sports if let get out of hand can be extremely dangerous. In rugby there is a conflict between both teams. One team is trying to move towards the goal line in one direction and the other team is trying to do exactly the same but in the opposite direction both teams bump, collide and tackle each other trying to stop each other’s progress. In the middle of these two teams is another team – the officials – men and women assigned to regulate what happens during the games. Each official must have an intimate knowledge of the laws of the game. And Glenstal has a connection with the laws of rugby: the laws of rugby were first written down by Sir Charles Barrington of Glenstal castle when he was a student in Trinity College Dublin in the 1880’s.
Now Jesus chose his apostles as sort of officials. He needs them more than ever now that he faces towards Jerusalem and the certainty of a horrible death. Our world is pretty chaotic. Words change meaning at the drop of a hat and we find it hard to negotiate our way through our lives – and we can easily interpret things wrongly. We don’t know yet what the consequences artificial intelligence might bring into our lives. Like sporting officials – like Jesus’s disciples – we must stick to the playbook as best we can.
Let us pray that when the time comes for us we will not get it wrong and will “stand up and fight until we hear the bell” against any and all evil – according to the Way, the Truth and the Life.