Fr. Rick’s Two Minute Homily for Thursday 18th Week in Ordinary Time 09-04-2022
Thursday 18th Week in Ordinary Time 2022
Matthew 16:13-23 https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080422.cfm
WE ARE A LOT LIKE ST. PETER.
Marathon bike races are famous in Florida, but not in the summer. Cones are set up to direct bikers to their destination, the finish line. If bikers leave those cones to go a different route, they will never reach the finish line. So, what is the point of racing when bikers do their own thing and do not follow directions?
We are blessed in the Church to have a guide to get us to the finish line (heaven – eternal bliss). That guarantee is in St. Peter, who is our Rock that withstands all the storms through the centuries that bash against us. This grace-filled Rock is in all of Peter’s successors, the popes.
But sometimes, we think we have a better idea than Jesus. We are like Peter, who did not want Jesus to go to the cross and suffer. Jesus told Peter that he thought not as God thinks but as human beings think.
People and groups continue to challenge our Lord’s authority in Peter and his successors. This grace in the Catholic Church has outlasted schisms, reformations, and even Mass exoduses of practicing the Faith given to us by God. Is it worth seeking our human way when there is only one Way (Jesus) to heaven? The cones are there for only one reason.
The Catholic Church is our greatest friend to keep us faithful to Jesus and get us to heaven. We have her teaching and Sacraments. What will it take to get back on course if we have strayed?
IGNITE THE FIRE!
Father Rick Pilger, I.C.
pastor
