An apparent good

Jesus and his disciples left for the villages round Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him. ‘John the Baptist,’ they said ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he asked ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the Christ.’ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’ (Mark 8, 27-33)

When people try, even for an apparent good, to substitute divine will with their own, they behave as slaves of the devil and not servants of God. St. Peter would like to correct Jesus and for this reason he grumbles about Him having spoken of the cross that He has announced He must carry. How many times have you, in the last week, hidden behind a  fake respect for someone or behind a lesser evil, in order not to bear witness to the Gospel?