Do you believe yourself to be infallible ?

Sunday 6 June 2021

Do you believe yourself to be infallible ?

Peter answered him : You are the Messiah. Mark 8:29

Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, will make a confession concerning Jesus, different from that of other contemporaries.

Opinions about Jesus are very diverse, but Peter's statement follows a special revelation. People of our time may have all kinds of opinions about Jesus, but the revelation we have of Jesus has been engraved in our hearts by a miracle of the grace of God. The disciples gradually discovered that Jesus was the Messiah. Peter received this revelation and he shares it with conviction.

Three verses later, Jesus will take Peter again with these words : "Get behind me, Satan !"

"Let us be receptive to the voice of the Spirit so that we do not act according to our carnal impulses."

After making an extraordinary declaration, inspired by the Spirit of God, Peter will speak words so far removed from God's plan for Jesus, that the latter discovers in them a trick of the devil to turn him away from the cross. What happened ? As much as Peter was receptive to the revelation of the Holy Spirit, so he was permeable to his purely human emotions.

Let’s not throw stones at him, we’re no more infallible than he is. His attitude reminds us that we are capable of the best, when the Spirit of God acts in us, as of the worst, when we act according to our own feelings, our carnal impulses, our emotions.

We need to remember that only grace is able to keep us from going astray. This is what Paul reminded the Corinthians : "So let him who thinks he is standing, be careful not to fall !" (1 Corinthians 10.12)

A prayer for today

Lord, come fill me with your Spirit so that it gives me the strength to do well, the ability to discern, the guarantee to stand firm. Amen.

Paul Calzada

Source (The Thought of the Day)