Father David Herrera - Aug 30

St. Philip Catholic Church: We see again Peter in this gospel and if we remember last week the Lord was asking the question and Peter asked in a great way. And the Lord praised him and gave him the keys to the gates of heaven. And you know, Peter must have felt like yes, I got this and then today goes the other way around. He went and messes up again. Saint Peter that becomes the rock is the Saint Peter that today in a way becomes an obstacle. See, in a way he still does not understand Jesus' mission. Jesus is telling him not to go in front of him, trying to be the guide to the teacher. In a way Peter is trying to guide Jesus, and Jesus is like, That is not your role. Your role is to go behind me and listen to the word. To go behind me and continue to be my disciple. And then Jesus lists three conditions there. Well, what does it mean to be a disciple? What does it mean to follow him? The first one is to deny oneself, and this does not mean to undervalue oneself and to live in this hopelessness or sadness. Because God does not want our suffering always. He does he wants our happiness. It what what it actually means is to stop putting ourselves as the center of everything. To let go of that question we usually ask ourselves when we're trying to do something of what do I gain from this? Like somebody asks me, Can you help me with this? Can you volunteer for this? Our question shouldn't be like, What do I gain for this? We have to let go of that question and actually ask what Can I love? Who can I love? Who else can I serve? Who can I bring happiness to? That is denying oneself. And we see the mother denying to herself or oneself when she wakes up in the middle of the night to feed her children. We see the parents denying oneself when they deny themselves of that sleep because their child is sick. We see the father that goes for a job because he loves his family, the daughter and son who obey their parents and later on cares patiently for their aging parents. Another way of denying oneself is the friend who takes time to accompany someone else in silence or in their suffering. The one that forgives even though he can take revenge. The one that always gives his times, put possessions or other things out of love without expecting a reward. That is what it doesn't mean to deny oneself. Because on all those things we don't put ourselves as the center. The second point Jesus makes is to take up his cross. My brothers and sisters, the cross is not a sickness. A failure or an injustice. God does not send crosses to make us suffer. To carry our cross means to suffer the consequences of loving Jesus just as Jesus did. And how do we see that? The person who decides to take a true friendship can be betrayed, and that is the cross. Who defends the weak can be criticized. Who who tells the truth can be left alone, who says not to corruption, can lose to a variety of opportunities, who forgives risks being misunderstood, who loves deeply becomes vulnerable to being hurt, who remains faithful may have to make more sacrifices. And we see this in the first re reading of the Prophet Jeremiah. He tells us exactly what does it mean to carry one's cross. He basically tells, Lord, you seduced me and I let myself be seduced, and because of this I'm getting mocked, people are making fun of me. And basically to carry one cross is the price we have to pay to live according to the gospel. And not according to the world. And then the third point that Jesus makes is follow me. But we have to follow Jesus, not Jesus to follow our plan. See sometimes we can be God, your will be done, but here is my plan. And it's like, Okay, so do we want his will or my will? And it's like, Well Lord, I like your will but I have this better thing over here, so let me follow that for now. And that is not the whole point. If we want to follow Jesus, yes, we can present the plan to Jesus and be like, Here is my plan, Lord. Now, if this is according to your will, help me to achieve it. If not, help me along the way to make the changes. Because to follow somebody, especially Jesus, we have to keep our sight in him. And how do we keep our side in Jesus with prayer? with listening to his word, the celebration of the sacrament, especially participation of the Eucharist. Because if we stop listening to His word, we're gonna start listening to the noise of the world. And what happens is that through prayer we put ourselves behind Jesus and our eyes fixed on him. Because my brothers and sisters, just like Peter's, we might not understand where Jesus is leading us to. We may stumble along the way. But seeing our faith journey journey when we follow Jesus, sometimes we s we might go a different path. Sometimes we might look away or start to listen into the world. But when we have gone away, when we have fallen to the darkness, when we feel that we don't see God in our lives, that's when we have to really Stop and listen to Jesus that He's telling telling us to let me lead you, let me guide you, listen to my word, deny yourself, take your cross and follow me. My brothers and sisters, my question for you today is this where are you right now? Are you having trouble denying yourselves? Are you having trouble taking up that cross, paying that price to follow Jesus? Or are you having trouble seeing Jesus all the time? Keep Him in your sight, going behind Him. Let us ask the Lord to help us to see where we are struggling and to give us a hand so we can really become His true disciples. Because one thing is certain: our life on this earth will come. Come to an end. Do not lose your life following the world, but find your life following Christ.