I participated in my nephew’s wedding two weeks ago, which turned out to be a beautiful ceremony and family gathering. However, the trip was another story! It was a good distance from here and there were many unexpected driving challenges: GPS redirects, brake adjustments and lashing summer rains that made visibility impossible. Towards the end of the trip, when the lashing rains were falling, I remember looking briefly up to the heavens and thinking: “Lord, couldn’t you have made this a brighter day with sunshine and clear skies?” Then I remember how this very same type of experience happened to St. Teresa of Avila many years ago. She was travelling by horse and wagon a long distance from her convent where her sisters were having an important meeting. They needed her presence because she was their superior! Then rain poured down with a vengeance as one of the wheels bent from the wagon. She prayed for help and better conditions, but it only got worse. She was stuck there and had to miss the meeting. She turned to heaven in frustration and said, “Lord, if this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them!” I am sure everyone reading this has had some kind of frustrating experience that changed or challenged their plans. In today’s Gospel, St. Peter’s hopes for a beautiful kingdom of God’s peace and love to rain down from heaven with Jesus at the head of it. So, when Peter began to rebuke Jesus because His plan was to suffer greatly for the people, by saying: “God forbid, Lord! No such things shall ever happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” Isn’t it true that we all have hopes that life should be happy and rosy as we make our daily plans. After all, we strive to be good disciples of the Lord and live the Gospel as faithfully as we can. But there is a part of the Gospel we try to avoid: suffering! Especially when it comes unexpectedly. God is not the one who creates the suffering but is there beside us to see it through. Suffering is a way to develop trust and hope in the One who has even better plans for us than we have for ourselves!    

~ Fr. John