For what would we give our lives? Peter fumbles this spectacularly in today's gospel. Jesus was teaching openly that he was going to suffer, it was a matter of fact, a condition of his — and our — living, The response of the Spirit to suffering is compassion, or presence and companionship with the one who suffers. Instead, Peter does something that may be intimately familiar to us: he tries to "fix" it. He wants to make it go away. He clings to his own ideas of what ought to be, and rather than ease Jesus' suffering, it actually increases Peter's own. The Way of the Cross shows us a more loving way of living and giving our lives.  

Lent 2B: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Psalm 22:22-30; Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38