This morning’s Gospel reading is Matthew 16:21–27:

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”

Is there a difference between belief and faith? When we’re younger, maybe not, because children put their whole selves into what they believe. Their belief and faith are inseparable, whether on important issues or frivolous. As Jesus Himself said, we should believe as children do, with no separation between belief and faith.

Unfortunately, the rest of us struggle with the difference, as Jesus tried to warn in that same passage. We believe, because belief is an intellectual choice, a decision to adopt a certain set of values. We can profess belief in God, belief in an ideology, belief on a set of philosophical or social mores. As an intellectual choice, belief comes mainly through our own will, and because of that, belief is subject to change or adaptation.

But do we have faith? Faith goes beyond the intellect — it calls to something deeper, a trust that causes us to set aside our own will for the sake of another’s. True faith would cause us to defy our own intellect and will when they come into conflict with the will and plan of that Other. (This is why we must be very careful about what we choose to believe, let alone in what we choose to place our faith.)

Today’s readings give us clear examples of the difference between belief and faith. In our Gospel reading, Peter fails this test, and ironically just a couple of verses after Jesus declares that Peter will lead the Church. When Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah, what does Jesus first say? He proclaims Peter as a willing instrument of the Father, a vessel of true faith rather than reason or belief:

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.[“]

After that, Jesus reveals the plan of salvation through His Passion and death, which will allow Him to conquer death and open the door to eternal life for all. How does Peter react? He still believes, but has no faith. Peter declares that this shall not happen, even though the Messiah in whom he has come to believe has proclaimed it. Peter has put his trust in his own intellect and will rather than the Lord’s, which is why Jesus rebukes him so sharply and immediately by saying, “Get behind me, Satan,” and then accurately diagnosing the failure of trust: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

In our first reading from Jeremiah, we see this same conflict from the opposite direction. Known as the “weeping prophet,” Jeremiah had the unpleasant task of warning the people of Judah of their upcoming destruction and enslavement, thanks to their idolatry and their wickedness. An unwilling prophet, Jeremiah had both belief and faith, although the latter felt more like a curse to him. Compelled by his faith in God, Jeremiah spent his life being attacked and vilified for his doom-laden prophecies, and at times hunted by enemies to shut him up for good.

Today’s reading comes from a passage in which Jeremiah had been placed in the stocks in Jerusalem for his frightening warnings to a people who had belief but no faith. He laments being chosen for this mission, but proclaims that his faith in the Lord is so profound that it is like fire within, only quenched when Jeremiah does the work of the Lord:

I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.

By this time, Jeremiah had become an embodiment of the Greek myth of Cassandra — gifted with prophecy but cursed in such a way that no one would believe her. This suited the will of the Lord in Jeremiah’s case, and even though it led to a life of misery for Jeremiah, he could not refuse the mission. And Jeremiah has his vindication, not just in the fall of Judah but afterward as well. Not long after this passage, the Babylonians sack Judah and Jerusalem, but then the Lord gives Jeremiah a new message of hope and restoration. Jerusalem will return for a faithful people — not just believers, but people who put their trust in the Lord and act as His instruments in the world.

And in this we can see the parallel between the two readings. Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple to an angry faithless populace, but promised a redemption in mercy for those who repented. Jesus foretold of his own destruction in Jerusalem on behalf of an angry, faithless people, and got a similar reaction from Peter as Judeans gave Jeremiah — a refusal to trust and have faith.

Belief is an absolute necessity, of course, but it is merely a beginning. It is not enough to intellectualize an acceptance of Jesus Christ. To stop there is to remain in charge, to subject the Lord to our will rather than the other way around. That stops us from accepting His authority over us. Only faith allows that recognition of His lordship, an act that forces us to risk everything by allowing His will to work through us. To reach salvation, we too must feel our faith burning in our hearts and bones, to the point where we have no choice but to follow Him — and accept the hard road ahead to the paradise at the end.

The front-page image is “The Prophet Jeremiah Prophesies the Fall of Jerusalem to King Zedekiah” by Joseph Stallaert, c. 19th century. Via Wikimedia Commons. 

“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature, looking at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.