These last two weekends, as we celebrated the 21st and 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (cycle A) we have read the account of Jesus’ dialogue with his disciples in the region of Caesarea Philippi, according to the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 16:13-27). At two different moments in the passage, Jesus addresses Peter with two contrasting phrases, using two statements in which the second seems to be exactly the opposite of the first. When Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of the living God, Jesus exclaims: «Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for no man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father» (16:17). Then, when Peter rebukes Jesus, telling him that it is impossible for him to be executed, Jesus, after speaking to him with unusual harshness (treating him as Satan!), adds: «You think like men do, not like God does» (16: 23). First, he said that Peter’s declaration of faith came from God, then Jesus states that Peter’s attempt to divert him from his mission is a purely human thought. The story, in summary, makes it very clear that there is a way of thinking proper to men, which is opposed to God’s way of thinking.
How do «men» think? How does God think? What is the specific nature of each way of thinking?
We can deduce the answer to these questions from the context in which the phrases are pronounced, and also by looking at what Jesus says next: «Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it» (16:25).
To think like men—to think humanly, without taking the Gospel into account—is to put our well-being and our personal comfort before any other consideration. It is to place our peace of mind before anything else. It is to live avoiding conflicts, making sure that the anguish and suffering of others do not touch us; it is to live dodging problems, dangers and headaches. It is to make of our personal security the absolute good to which we aspire.
To think like God is to understand that sometimes we must risk our well-being so that the world looks a little bit more like the kingdom of God. It is to understand that, although our peace of mind is important, there are much more important things in life: the construction of a more just world, the creation of environments of authentic freedom, of spaces where everyone fits, where there is no room for exploitation and where no one abuses anyone: the reasons, ultimately, why Jesus (who thought like God, not like men) decided to go to Jerusalem to face the unjust system that oppressed his people, even though he knew that failure and death were waiting for him there.
We can go a little deeper: to think like men is also to see the world as something finished, completed, that exists to satisfy our needs. It is to conceive the world as a sort of a huge supermarket, with the shelves full of products and resources well arranged, ready for us to take them home... without thinking that, sooner or later, the supermarket will be empty.
To think like God is to understand that the world is a work in process, something we must help create every day. It is to imagine the world as a field that must be cultivated with skill, love and dedication, an immense garden that you and I can continue to sow, water, and prune, so that it never stops producing fruit.
To think like men is to see others as means to our ends, and to think: «From him I can get affection; from her, instead, money, since she is rich; from that one, advice, because he is wise; from the one a recommendation, since she is very well connected with important people»…
And to think like God is to ask myself: «What can I do for others, so that everyone I know may live better, fuller lives?».
In short, to think like men is to have a predatory mentality; to think that reality exists solely so that I may obtain from it what I need. Thinking like God is acting out of a creative mentality: what can I do to enrich the reality that surrounds me?
When we make decisions, whether they are trivial or critical, and especially if they are critical, do we decide thinking like the Peter who assured Jesus that he was the Son of God—or like the Peter who was frightened by the prospect of the cross? How do we live our lives? Thinking like God, or thinking like men?
