(Twenty-fourth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on September 15, 2024 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Isaiah 50:5-9a; Psalm 116:1-9; James 2:14-18; Mark 8:27-35.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-fourth Sunday 2024]
Because we are sinners, here are
the choices we constantly face in our lives: it’s either “quick fall, no rise”
or “quick fall, slow rise” or “quick fall, quick rise.”
Life involves many quick falls—quick falls into sin! The Bible tells us that even the just person (not the scoundrel, the just person) sins seven times, so nobody is exempt from this phenomenon. In fact, you can come to church, make a good confession, and sin again in your thoughts or your words before you exit the parking lot afterward! It can happen that quickly! This is one reason why Simon Peter is such a lovable and attractive character as the Scriptures portray him. During our Lord’s three-year ministry Peter turned the “quick fall” into an art form. He was extremely adept at it. He could go from the highest of heights to the lowest of lows in a matter of minutes.
We see a classic example of this in today’s gospel reading. When Jesus asked the twelve apostles that decisive question, “Who do you say that I am?” only Peter answered. And he gets an “A” for his response. He said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” In Matthew’s account of this scene, Jesus then said, “Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah! No mere man has revealed this to you—my heavenly Father has.” Can’t you just see Peter lifting up his head and sticking his chest out with joy at hearing those words? Then, of course, Jesus went on to tell his apostles what kind of Messiah he would be—not the great military leader and earthly king they and the Jewish people were expecting, but a suffering Messiah who would go to the cross for the salvation of the world. That, I’m sure, didn’t sit too well with any of them, but once again Peter was the one to speak. He said, “Oh no! Not to you Jesus! May that never happen to you!” Our Lord then snapped back, “Get behind me—Satan!” Peter went from being the most blessed of all the apostles, to the very mouthpiece of Satan—all within the span of one, short conversation. He was truly and unquestionably the master of the quick fall.
In the aftermath of the quick falls that all of us take every day, we can (and we do) respond in one of three ways. I made note of these a few moments ago. The first possible response is what I would call the “quick fall with no rise.” This is the response of those who sin, and then give up. They throw in the towel—they despair—even though they could be forgiven, even though they could be washed clean in the blood of Jesus and make a fresh start. Sad to say, the classic example of the quick fall with no rise is another apostle, namely Judas. Judas went from being a future bishop, a future pillar of the church, to an evil and deceitful traitor in a matter of a few days. His fall was total, it was quick, and it was decisive. But, as Bishop Sheen once said, the real tragedy of Judas is that in spite of his terrible sin, he still could have become Saint Judas, if he had only turned back to the Lord and sincerely asked for forgiveness. The “quick fall, no rise” scenario should never have happened to him. It should never happen to anyone.
The second possible response to a quick fall into sin is what I call the “quick fall, slow rise” response. Now unfortunately this is very common. It occurs whenever a person sins, and then for some reason delays his repentance. Because of fear, or for some other reason, he puts off dealing with it. Now the sad aspect of this scenario is that if the sin isn’t dealt with right away, it very often gets worse, and the consequences of the sin get more severe, until the person finally makes the decision to take it to confession and make the changes that are necessary in his life. Let me give you one example from my own experience. I have a friend—a married man with a beautiful family—who almost lost everything: his wife, his kids, his house—everything, because of a gambling problem. He first called me after he had lost several thousand dollars. I told him what he needed to do to deal with the problem, but he delayed in making the changes I told him he needed to make. He delayed until he lost several thousand more dollars. Well finally he came to his senses, thanks be to God. But I’m sure if you talked with him today he would tell you that he wishes he had risen out of his sin and addiction more quickly than he did. He would certainly have had a much smaller debt than he ended up with!
For anyone who may have a tendency to be a slow riser I would say, “Ask St. Augustine to pray for you.” Seek his heavenly intercession. Augustine is the patron saint of all those who fall quickly and rise slowly. His mother, who prayed for his conversion for 30 years, would certainly agree with that assessment. Augustine as you will recall was the great playboy of the 4th century, whose famous prayer was, “O Lord, make me chaste, but not now.” Years after his conversion he wrote a beautiful prayer to the Lord which begins with the words, “Late have I loved you”. In it you can sense the sorrow he had in his heart that he had wasted so much time delaying his conversion.
Which brings us to the final possible response, which is a quick fall with an equally quick rise. This also brings us back to Peter, because Peter is the patron saint of all those who don’t delay their repentance. In other words, he’s the patron saint of all those who rise out of their sin as quickly as they fall into it! I would ask you this morning to put yourself in Peter’s position after Jesus called him “Satan”. Can you imagine how Peter must have felt? He must have been devastated! But there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever anywhere in Scripture that he walked away from the Lord! There’s no evidence that he went away and sulked. He stuck with Jesus. He was anxious to have the Lord raise him up again—which incidentally Jesus did do, literally, a few days later when he took Peter (along with James and John) up a high mountain to give them a little glimpse of heaven in the Transfiguration.
And so it was with Peter’s other well-known falls. For example, when he began to sink after walking on water, Peter immediately reached out his hand to Jesus so that our Lord would save him, so that our Lord would raise him up out of the sea. And Jesus did! And then there’s the best example of all: after denying our Lord three times on Holy Thursday night, Peter jumped at the first opportunity he had to recommit himself to Jesus. In one of their first encounters after the resurrection, Jesus said to Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” ‘Yes, Lord.’ “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” ‘Yes, Lord.’ “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” ‘Yes, Lord, you know everything, you know well that I love you.’ Three professions of faith made by Peter through which he, in effect, repented for his three denials. I suppose you could say that this was Peter’s first confession—complete with a penance given by Jesus who told him to go out and “Feed my lambs.”
And so today, at this Mass, let us humbly acknowledge ourselves to be what we are: quick fallers! But let us also confidently seek the powerful prayers of the very first pope: “St. Peter, pray for each of us present in this church this morning, that whenever we fall into sin we will have the courage, the wisdom, the desire—and the good sense—to rise up as quickly and as decisively as you always did. Amen.”
