The last gospel texts and homilies had the common theme of blindness vs. clarity of sight. Today's gospel culminates this with the clarity of sight of Peter regarding who Jesus is. He declared, "You are the Christ." He was the Anointed One. He was sent by God to usher in the Messianic era. However, Peter could still grow in clarity in understanding the content of that messiahship. In fact, today's gospel ends with Our dear Lord calling Him Satan because he did not want Jesus to have anything to do with dying condemned by the leaders in Israel. On the third day, He was to rise from the dead. All this latter content of Jesus' messiahship needed to sink in further, and it took some more time for them to see this meaning.
