What does God want?

There can often be a sense that God wants what we want. This was certainly Peter's challenge. In last weeks Gospel he received plaudits from Jesus for being on the money, this week he receives a rebuke for being way off the mark. This is where we need to quiten the warring voices within us which equate what we desire with what God desires. The challenge for us in every age is to be people who allow our minds and hearts to be in union with God. It calls us to be people who are prayerful, reflective and able to see how we can be present to our world with faith, hope and love. This is not by imposing our own will but through allowing God's will to draw us to following him.

What do we hold onto and what do we let go

The question Jesus poses at Caesarea Philippi relates to who we think he is. This seems to be such a basic question but it shapes how we relate to him as a person. This is not about an academic test but rather an understanding of how his life shapes our own. It is from this relational understanding that he is the anointed one who enables us to grow closer to our God in his person. The fact that Peter gains a deep appreciation of this insight helps us to see what can lead us closer to God and the ways that we can drift away. By seeking to become intentional disciples we look at the ways that help to nurture that relationship and what needs to be let go. What binds us closer to God and what helps us to exercise a freedom which liberates others. In all things we seek to draw closer to Christ by the way we pray, reflect and act in a way which brings hope and life to others.

Persistence

There are times when we tend to pull back from making a prayer of the heart. We wonder whether we are talking to ourselves or whether God is truly listening. The story of the Canaanite women assures us that we are called to come before God with wit and humour. The very desire to be in God's presence allows us to be present to what is needed for this day. Our prayer also tends to purify our intention and what we truly seek. This allows us to be persistent in seeking to bring good on behalf of another. This is at the heart of our intercession. It allows us to seek a threefold good. To bring another person before God, to acknowledge that what possesses or obsesses us will not have the final word and that our prayer of mercy touches the heart of God. We are called to recognise that as we gather as a community that it is God who draws us together. For the good of ourselves, for the good of others and the good of the world. We touch the creative heart of God who is ever present and ever new. 

The quiet still voice

For fear of repeating myself, we live in a world besieged by noise and opinion. We live in a climate in which we are swamped by a tsunami of media which seeks to grab our attention and focus our interest. Whether it is the daily diet of news, social media or email everybody seems to want to grab our gaze. There is also a great climate of news which seeks to engender fear and distraction away from ourselves to matters over which we have little control. It calls us to attend to something for fear that we may become bored with ourselves and the routine of our daily lives. We can see this in the way storms seem to break upon us and we are called to focus on the destructive forces of nature. There seems to be a climate which creates a sense of powerlessness which seems to be overwhelmed by these events. We seem to be diminished by our own world which seems to be fighting against us. Then again if this was not all we are confronted by those who wish to set fire and destroy what is known whether by terrorism, war or personal conflict. This desire to give vent to their own inner conflicts by force upon others. This seeking to face our own destructive instincts is at the heart of our own ability to be wounded and to wound others. 

Yet in the midst of this outward and inward ability to be overcome by forces which seem beyond our control we have two images that come to us through the scriptures. The first is Elijah in the cave. He does not hear God's voice in the destructive nature of the gale, the earthquake or the fire but in the quiet zephyr of a breeze which passes in front of him. In the midst of this gentleness he covers his face and stands present. This is a call for us to listen to a God who alone can quieten the violence which can seem to overwhelm and destroy us. 

The second image is that of the boat battling a heavy sea and Peter being invited out of the boat to walk towards Jesus. Once again this is not an ignoring of the storms that can rage around us but rather a trust in a God who calls us to reach out and touch him. There is a total reliance in how God is present even in the most difficult situation and to entrust our lives totally to him.

This is a reminder to us that our faith is built on a relationship with the one who can save us and call us to a life in union with him. It is from this relationship that we do not become passive observers of life but rather participants who do not succumb to a fatalistic way of being present. We are called to notice what frightens us but not be overcome by it. By being open to how God quietens our fears we can start to focus on what creates life, what builds hope and what sustains others in loving charity. Each day we listen to that still quiet voice which allows us to be prayerfully present to ourselves and to others.

Listen to him

How we listen to another indicates the way we will live our lives. The transfuguration puts the same words before us that we hear at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. This is my beloved son, listen to him. This is not just about hearing what he said or reading what has been written. It is allowing his life to touch our own. We encounter Jesus  by allowing his living word to engage us more deeply. To ponder how it becomes one with us and shapes how we think and act. This heartfelt response challenges us to not be afraid that God reaches out to us to enter into a living and life giving relationship. We are called to listen to his voice in the way we live.