NOTES for Mat 16:20-24

How vivid and humanly understandable Peter's action is. We know this so well from our relationships with those close to us, for whom we care with all our hearts. How hard it is to accept a loved one's destiny as God sees it, rather than as you see it. Thinking about one's own suffering and death can be less difficult. It draws us closer to the Lord and gives us spiritual strength. But when it concerns someone else, someone we love, it is the opposite: you think, if only it would pass them by, if only they would be spared, and you pray: protect them, save them. It is simply unimaginable torment to accept the suffering and death of someone you love when there is nothing you can do except pray. But perhaps I am really just feeling sorry for myself? Perhaps I am grieving because this person's departure will leave a void in my life that will make me—me!—suffer? Yes, that too: one person's suffering and death always become suffering for all those close to them. We are all deeply bound to one another. And we must courageously accept not only our own cross, but also that of someone close to us. Our faith teaches us to listen to God and submit to his will. Mother Maria (Skobtsova) went to the gas chamber in another woman's place. But the Lord allowed her to do so. He will not permit this to just anyone. Someone else, on the contrary, he will turn away from it, and that will be his will. At present, the Lord is keeping you safe while sending a cross to the person you love so much. You must bow to this and accept it, however much you long to change places with them, if only they need not suffer. But this submission to God's will does not mean inaction. It means listening, paying attention to what God is telling you about it now. And when you have heard and are certain—the Lord always gives this certainty and peace, which may even be a sign that we have understood him correctly—then spare no effort: do everything.