Perhaps our most important work as
monks is to allow things to fall apart and to notice that as things fall apart we
more available for Christ's mercy. Perhaps part of our work is to normalize this
fragmentation for one another- normalize the falling apart as the means to a
most glorious end- life in Christ Jesus. This is not a careless, presumptive
laziness, (“I’m broken, you’re broken; Christ will rescue us. No problem!”)
Neither is it the blind leading the blind into a catastrophic fall. It is
rather the weak leading the weak into a willing acknowledgement and celebration
of the inevitability of our fragmentation and weakness as the great good news that will
lead to our transformation in Christ.
Jesus’ question to Peter, to each of us in this
morning’s Gospel, situates us with Peter poised to listen to our Master as he
whispers this hauntingly beautiful question to each of us in the depths of our
hearts, “Who do you say that I am? Who am I for you? What is your experience of
me in your life, in your history? How do you experience me now?” What will we answer? Perhaps when we come to understand ourselves as sinners desperately
beloved by God in Christ, then with Peter we can say, “You are the Messiah, the
Son of the living God,” and with Paul, “All I want is to know (you) Christ
Jesus and the power flowing from (your) resurrection. Now nothing else
matters.”
