Faith is Just the Beginning of the Journey, Not the Destination.

Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Faith is not an end but a beginning. That’s the only way to think about it.

Avoid the theological controversies of justification, the age-old arguments over faith and works, arguments which are prompted by our reading from the Letter of St. James today. These arguments do have their place but leave them to the theologians. Don’t worry about all that; don’t let anyone disturb you. Just remember faith is a beginning, and without it, you will not grow in Christ.

You see this in Peter, in the other disciples too. Faith clearly was only a beginning; Peter clearly still had much more to learn. Seeing the crowds and the miracles, hearing Jesus teach, Peter was brought to a point of faith. “You are the Christ,” he said. A tremendous moment: in Matthew’s account, Jesus says it was a gift of the revelation of the Father. But Peter still had much more to learn, much more to accept. He had faith, an infused gift, but there was still a lot he did not understand, a great deal he stubbornly refused to see. His faith still had a long way to go.

This is clear in what follows Peter’s profession of faith. After faith, Jesus “began to teach.” Faith opens the door to deeper knowledge; in a sense, only now does Jesus begin to teach, after faith. But what was the first lesson? It was this: “the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.” Word and prophecy of the Passion was the lesson, the divine wisdom that followed Peter’s faith and immediately tested it.

What brought Peter to faith was not just divine revelation but also all that earlier success, the miracles and the popularity, the triumph hitherto. That’s the sort of Messiah for which Peter was hoping; most were hoping for the same, a king unquestionably strong. But that’s not the sort of Christ that Jesus was or was ever going to be. More like a lamb led to the slaughter, more like a servant who gives his back to those who beat him – as we heard from Isaiah this morning. That’s the prophecy more like what God is doing in Jesus.

This teaching of Jesus was so very unlike what so many expected, Peter’s misunderstanding is understandable, his shock not surprising. Peter had faith, for sure, but he still had much to learn. He had yet to accept the truth of self-denial and the cross, the renunciation of the power and secret vengeance so secretly hidden within what he found attractive about his earlier and unpurified notions of the Messiah. The real Messiah was to be weak; he was to be crucified. What would Peter’s faith make of that? What does our faith make of that? That was the test.

Peter failed that test for then he “took him aside and began to rebuke him.” Barely a breath into the first lesson, and the student tries to usurp the teacher. Peter rebukes Jesus. How intolerable a suggestion! The Christ will suffer? Will he be rejected and killed? Absolutely not! Clearly, Peter still had much to learn, his faith had not yet brought him to full knowledge. And here, we see Peter do what you and I sometimes do. Even though we have faith, we, nonetheless, sometimes reject the truth to which our faith points. Because we don’t want our God to be like that, non-violent and powerless and slain on a cross. Because we don’t want to be like that, for pride and power still seduce us.

Which is why Jesus in return “rebukes” Peter. Just as he rebuked the demon and the storm, so now the Lord rebukes Peter’s rejection of the will of God. He tells Peter to get behind him. In other words, you are not the leader. People of faith follow the leader, for the Son of Man must embrace the Passion. This counter-intuitive mission of God is the only way love will conquer, saving us from the lies of righteous hatred and violence. Total is the gift the Son gives to the Father; total must be the gift we give Christ and our neighbor. Only that is love. And there must be no hint of violence there, no secret or small manipulation. To rid ourselves of pride, to purify our wills that can so quickly become like Satan’s will — rebellious, power-hungry, cruel — we must completely let go.

We must follow Jesus and become as he is — weaker but stronger, passive but a conqueror, dead but risen. There is no alternative. This is the knowledge Peter had difficulty accepting, knowledge each of us sometimes finds hard to accept. But that’s what Jesus taught; that’s exactly what he said.

So, the test comes to us too. Do we want the cross? Or do we want something else, something other than what Jesus offers? We know the answer even if our hearts rebel. We know what there is of Peter within us. We know what we must give up. Which is where our spiritual work must begin.

(Much of today’s homily comes from an article written by Fr. Joshua Whitfield.)