Thursday 18th week in ordinary time
"Mt 16:13-23"
Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men."
Striking words of Our Lord. Literally a couple of verses before, in the same Gospel, Jesus was saying to Peter: "you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Jesus was going to give Peter the keys of the kingdom, but first he had to learn a lesson about gaining souls for God: 'No pain, no gain.' Suffering is a means of paying for souls.
Today we can consider the life of St John Mary Vianney as a clear example of this. When he was appointed to look after Ars, a village with just over 350 inhabitants, he prayed, "Lord, grant me the conversion of my parish; I am willing to suffer whatever You wish, for my entire life." He certainly suffered. To all the sufferings of his life, scorn, physical ailments - especially when he was old - poverty and persecution, he added his own mortifications. He made the resolution never to enjoy the fragrance of a flower, never to taste fruit nor to drink, even only a few drops of water, during the height of the summer heat. He would not brush away a fly that annoyed him. When on his knees he would not rest his elbows on the kneeling bench. He never showed any dislike. He mortified his curiosity: thus he never expressed so much as a wish to see the recently invented railway which passed by Ars at a distance of a few kilometres. One meal sufficed him for the whole day. He normally ate only a little black bread and one or two potatoes boiled in water.
During an exorcism a demon once lamented that hell had lost 80,000 souls due to St John Vianney's prayers and sacrifices alone. Not because of his words... but his prayers and sacrifice. That's the secret of the apostle: to save souls we have to suffer for them. Mary, Queen of the Apostles, help me to be generous in sacrifice.
