How do you receive correction?

“You are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).

Why did Jesus give Simon, the son of Jonah, the name Peter? And why did Jesus choose him to be the rock upon which the church is built?

There is a play on words in our Gospel today which becomes obvious when we note that the Greek word for rock is petra, and the Greek form of the name Peter is Petros. Jesus, probably with a twinkle in his eye, was saying something like “You are Petros, and upon this petra, I will build my church.”

In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus talked about the wise man who built his house on rock. “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” He contrasted this wise man with another who built his house on sand. “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Was Jesus making the same mistake with Peter?

Peter had a knack for starting out strong, but he always faded in the middle. Two weeks ago, we heard of Peter and the other disciples shaking in a boat being tossed about by the wind and the waves (see Matthew 14:22-33). Seeing Jesus walking on the water, they became more terrified. But Peter was able to shout out, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water!” Jesus invited him, “Come.” At first, Peter was able to do the miraculous and walk on the water toward Jesus, but when Peter saw how strong the wind was, he became frightened and began to sink.

In our Gospel today, Peter correctly identifies who Jesus is: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” But after hearing from Jesus that being the Messiah means undergoing suffering and being killed — as we shall read in next week’s Gospel — Peter will rebuke Jesus. In turn, Jesus will call Peter a stumbling block (see Matthew 16:21-27).

Shortly after the Last Supper, Peter will boast, “Though all may have their faith in Jesus shaken, mine will never be.” We all know what Peter did that very night – not once, not twice, but three times – before the cock crowed.

When the rains come down and the streams rise, when the winds blow and beat, Peter crashes. He is not much of a firm foundation. Perhaps the more appropriate nickname for Peter is “Rocky” — unsteady and wobbly — rather than “Rock.” Did Jesus make a mistake?

In life, what matters most is not how we start and not that we falter but what we do after we fall. When Peter was sinking in the middle of the storm, Jesus rescued him and said, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Peter could have been offended. If Peter were a proud man, he could have even shunned Jesus’ helping hand and refused to get into the boat with him. But Peter did not.

When Peter rebuked Jesus and rejected the suffering the Messiah was to undergo, what did Jesus say to him? “Get behind me, Satan!” Though called a devil, Peter did go behind Jesus and continued following him.

Three times, Peter denied Jesus, but three times, too, when he met the Resurrected Jesus again, he professed his love: “Lord, you know that I love you” (see John 21:15-17).

In the three Gospel scenes above, we can say that Jesus was correcting Peter. Parang pinapagalitan ni Hesus si Pedro: “O you of little faith!” “Get behind me, Satan!” “Do you love me?” Because Jesus asked this three times, maybe we can interpret this as Jesus saying, “Do you really love me?” Peter did feel hurt by this as John 21:17 attests, but in this and in the two previous instances of correction, Peter did not let his hurt feelings fester into a grudge. Nasaktan siya, pero hindi siya nagtampo. Hindi siya nagtanim ng sama ng loob. Hindi niya iniwan si Hesus. Instead, he took Jesus’ hand, went back to following Jesus, and let Jesus restore him.

This is why Jesus asked Peter “Do you love me?” three times. Not because Jesus did not hear Peter the first two times. Not because Jesus was shaming Peter and rubbing his mistake in his face. Because Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus wanted to give Peter the chance to make up for being rocked by fear and doubt three times, too. Jesus was correcting Peter. He was also reconciling Peter to himself. Jesus was restoring Peter in God’s love.

How do we handle correction from God? Many times, we receive God’s correction in prayer, through the insights we receive when we reflect on what we have done. We also receive God’s correction from the words and reactions of the people God sends to our lives. Hardest of all are the corrections — take note, corrections, not punishments — we receive when we plan and plan and our plans go awry. Nagtatampo ba tayo sa Diyos kapag nangyayari ang mga ito? Nagtatanim ba tayo ng sama ng loob sa Panginoon? Iniiwan ba natin siya? Or do we let Jesus restore us?

“O you of little faith!” “Get behind me, Satan!” “Do you really love me?” Management gurus and organization experts may question the wisdom of Jesus when he exposed Peter’s weaknesses in front of (or at least within earshot of) the disciples Peter was to later lead. “How can someone of little faith lead us?” the disciples might have asked. “How can we trust someone who was called Satan? How can a stumbling block be our rock?” But perhaps Jesus wanted to teach us that the church is built not on perfect disciples but on men and women who have fallen and who then allow the Lord to raise them up again. Perhaps Jesus point in choosing Peter was this: “See how Peter easily stumbles, but see how he also never gives up — on himself and on his God. He lets himself be restored again and again.” Peter reminds us that ultimately our church is built not on individual men and women chosen to lead but on the mercy of God which restores us all.

From Peter, the first Pope, we turn our eyes to and learn from our present Pope. In an interview published in America magazine, Pope Francis was asked about his time as the Provincial Superior of the Jesuits in Argentina (see http://www.americamagazine.org/pope-interview). With what James Martin, the editor of America, observes as “refreshing [yet] almost embarrassing candor,” Pope Francis answered, “My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems… It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems.” Martin insightfully notes that the Pope did not sugarcoat what happened by saying “Mistakes were made” or “Things could have been done better.” The Pope simply and bluntly admitted that he screwed up. To the question “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” the Pope again honestly and straightforwardly replied, “I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.” But this sinner of a Pope did not give up. He did not cower from other opportunities to lead the Lord’s flock. He continued making mistakes, yes, but he also learned. And he let God restore him. I think this is why the Pope’s interview is very aptly entitled “A Big Heart Open to God.”

Kintsukuroi, translated literally as “golden repair,” is the Japanese art of restoring broken pottery with lacquer resin mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. For Japanese art collectors, the mended vessel is actually more valuable than the original unbroken pot. I think it is the same way with God and sinners. The vessel cracked and chipped but put together again becomes special to the Lord not because of any gold used to join the seams but because the Lord himself restored it.