Sunday 30 August 2026
Lectio
Divina:*
(See also Mark 8:34-9:1 and Luke 9:23-27 and John 12:25-26)
“If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any
more in his name’, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut
up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." (Jeremiah
20:9)
Commentary:
There is a small irony in this Sunday’s reading. Last
Sunday, we heard about the conferring of the keys on Peter, the rock on whom
Christ builds his Church. This Sunday, immediately following that discourse, we
hear Peter being called a stumbling block—a skandalon in
Greek—ironically from the same Jesus who had just named him Petros, the
rock.
Jesus does not mince his words: ‘Get behind me, Satan.’
Later in the Gospels we learn that Peter will deny the Lord three times, and
yet be forgiven, restored and strengthened. His story is not one of perfection at
once but of conversion.
Like Peter, we too can become stumbling blocks for others on life’s journey. By our attitudes, assumptions and ways of thinking, we can become instruments not of peace and unity but of discord, harm and alienation. Being a stumbling block is one thing; failing to recognise it and change is quite another. We can cling to self‑interest or to the approval of others while ignoring the demands of love. Many are deterred or scandalised because the light of Christ seems absent from our words, actions and manner of living.
