A reflection for Sunday 12th of September
Jeremy Fisher lived many years ago in a place that is many kilometres from here. But he came one night and poured out his heart to me. The contents were not pretty and there was quite a bit that Jeremy was not very proud of. But there it was, hanging in the air of my study like a tangible dark cloud between us. It was such a heartfelt and authentic admission that I whipped out a nearby stole, did what the Church does and pronounced absolution. It wasn’t in the formal dark confession box with 3 Hail Marys and an Our Father for good measure. But what passed between us and more importantly, between God and us, was an exhilarating experience of the power of forgiveness. Then with the last words “Go Jeremy and of your charity pray for me also a sinner who needs your prayers”, the aura between us popped and was replaced with a dancing light joy. The next time I saw him was when he came to the altar rail at the Sunday mass and then at the Church door. It was as though the encounter had never happened which is as it should be; because that is how God sees it or rather He doesn’t, as he has already forgotten what is past and is always encouraging us onto and into His future which is our future.
I’ll lay odds that each and everyone here has had a moment like that with a Jeremy Fisher. Someone we care about. Someone who generously has taken us into their confidence and we have been given a rare and precious insight into the innermost being of another soul. It is always an undeserved and unlooked for privilege and both listener and speaker are the wealthier for the encounter.
However, it does come with a cost and the cost is not only keeping the confidence, but the ongoing loving of another soul who puts their trust in you. This is your cross and it is theirs; maybe you have been the Jeremy Fisher who has made an informal or even formal confession. I tell you about Jeremy and his story because it has overtones of today's gospel. Jesus invites, teases out the disciples' confession. Watch closely as he cleverly and brutally extracts the information. Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ This is our friend and brother who also draws out of us the truth about ourselves and about Him. There is a price tag which is pinned to this confession of faith.Then in today's gospel Jesus does something which to our eyes and ears seems rather harsh and odd.“
And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.”
And I can’t help but think of Jeremy as he left my study that evening. Nothing more was ever said and nothing more ever needed to be said, because it was all dealt with. We don’t need to say anything more and the hardest thing I find is not revisiting someone else's woes, but not to revisit my own past tumblings. Why is that? The backdrop to today's Gospel is a journey. Jesus will be brought from Caesarea Philippi in the far north, via the mount of transfiguration, back to Galilee, then to Jericho, to the gates of Jerusalem and then to the cross. A confession of faith, a demonstration of belief, inevitably sets the disciples and Jesus on a path to Calvary and from there to resurrection. And just as surely as Jeremy began a new path and a new life, so it is with us when we listen, when we confess, when we walk with the disciples and the Master. And Jesus will make it very clear what is going to happen to him.
“Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again”.
And Peter bless him, as only Peter can, wants a different sort of Messiah and to understandably protect this guru whom he has grown to love.
“And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him”.
My hope would be that you have been Jeremy and that you have also been a minister that has shouldered the privileged cross with dignity and joy. That you have been given the courage to lose your life for His sake, and for the sake of the gospel, to save it. For the crosses of confidence that we carry and for the crosses of confidence that others shoulder with us, may the Lord’s name be praised.