Get Behind Me

by Fr. Jason Laguerta

Last Wednesday, while we were having a planning session in Tagaytay, news broke about the catastrophe in Tibet and Nepal.  Someone showed me a video of what was happening in the valley near the border of China and Tibet.  At first, I thought it was A.I., but it was a real-life tragedy.  As we reflect today, we also pray for our brothers and sisters in that area and for the thousands of people who are still missing.  Imagine not anticipating, or not even knowing, that it would be the last day of your life.

Among the many videos that circulated, one particularly caught my attention.  It looked like a scene from a movie, with raging waters rushing through and wiping out everything in their path.  Yet, amid the destruction stood a single building, and it seemed that people were still inside.  What struck me was that it endured and was able to withstand the tremendous pressure of the water while everything around it was being swept away.

That image reminded me of what the Lord teaches us in the Gospel today when He says, “Whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”  The Lord is warning us that following Him is not going to be easy.  He is teaching us to have the strength to endure the pressures, trials, and difficulties of life.  Like that building standing firm against the rushing waters, a disciple of Christ is called, not to run away from the cross, but to carry it with faith and perseverance, trusting that the Lord walks with us every step of the way.

This was precisely the lesson Peter struggled to understand.  When Jesus told His disciples what would happen in Jerusalem, that He would suffer, be arrested, and be put to death, Peter immediately took Him aside and said, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to You.”  Peter wanted to spare Jesus from suffering.  He wanted to protect Him from hardship and pain.  But Jesus turned to Peter and rebuked him: “Get behind me, Satan.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

What Peter wanted for Jesus was what many of us want for ourselves and for the people we love: a life without suffering.  Yet Jesus reminds Peter, and all of us, that trials and suffering are part of life.  If we truly want to follow God, we must accept that difficulties, sacrifices, and hardships are part of the journey.  They are not signs that God has abandoned us.  Often, they are the very path through which we draw closer to Him.

And the real question in life is not whether floods and storms will come.  The real question is: Will you be able to withstand the pressures that come your way?  Like Jeremiah in the First Reading, there came a point when he was ready to give up.  He cried out to the Lord, “You deceived me, Lord.  You took hold of me.  You fooled me.  You called me to this mission, and I obeyed You.  But look at me now – I am persecuted from every side.  My life is constantly under threat.  Why did You call me to this?”

Jeremiah's struggle is also our struggle.  How often have we asked the Lord, “Why did You lead me down this path if it would involve so much pain?  Why is this happening to me?”  Yet despite all his questions, Jeremiah did not abandon God; he persevered.  And in doing so, he teaches us that faith is not the absence of suffering but the courage to remain faithful even when the road becomes difficult.

Again, the question is not when you will be tested.  The question is what becomes of you when you are tested.  Should we surrender ourselves to the current?  Should we allow ourselves to be swept away and drown?  Or should we be like that building standing in the middle of raging waters, remaining firm despite the powerful forces around it?

Recently, I have been invited to several schools because of my background in psychology and my work as a priest.  In one school, the administrator asked me to speak about ego strength, grit, and resilience.  The request was simple: help students understand what it means to stay strong in the midst of hardships and trials.

I explained that ego strength is the capacity of a person to keep himself together in the midst of adversity.  It is the ability to say, “You are just a storm, and I can withstand you.”  But as Christians, we go even further – we connect ego strength with faith, for a person of faith can say, “You may be a storm, but God is greater than you.  He has the power to command you, and He has the power to calm you.”  That is where true strength comes from.  It does not come merely from ourselves, but from trusting in the God who is stronger than every trial, every hardship, and every storm that comes our way.

In that talk, one student asked me, “Father, how do you develop that strength?  How do you develop grit?”

Grit is a combination of courage and perseverance.  It is the ability not to give up in the midst of life's pressures.  The student wanted to know how a person reaches the point where he can truly say, “I am strong and I am capable.”

The answer is that strength does not appear overnight.  It is formed through trials, struggles, setbacks, and the willingness to keep moving forward despite difficulties.  More importantly, for us as Christians, strength comes not only from ourselves but from our faith in God, who carries us and gives us the courage to bear our cross.  That is why I used this Gospel to explain ego strength and grit.

And the first thing we do when we face adversity is not to say, “I am brave.”  The first thing we do is to get behind Jesus.  To get behind Him does not mean we are cowards.  It means we place before us the true source of our strength.  Power does not come from our own capacities, intelligence, or abilities.  Power comes from the Lord, so we cling to Him, we rely on Him and we trust in Him.

So, how do we withstand the pressures around us?  Not by saying, “I am strong,” but by saying, “I have a God who is stronger than this storm, and He is with me.”

In this mass, we pray, especially for those affected by floods and storms, and for all those who feel as though they are drowning in life's struggles.  The Lord says to us: “Get behind Me. Stay close to Me. Rely on Me,” because if we depend only on our own limited resources, we will quickly grow weary and give up. 

When children are afraid, they cling to the legs of their parents and hide behind them.  They run behind their mother or father and allow their parent to face what frightens them.  In the same way, when life's storms overwhelm us, the Lord invites us to come behind Him, cling to Him, and trust that He will stand between us and everything we fear.

That is the image Jesus wants us to understand when He says, “Get behind Me.”  Get behind Me and I will sort it out for you.  Get behind Me and I will help you.  Today, we pray for that kind of faith and humility, the faith to say, “Lord, I do not have the power and strength to do everything on my own, so I get behind You, and I cling to You.”

Transcribed by Agnes Riel