Hear, you greedy one; listen. The Apostle explains to you in another place what he means: Let no one seek what is his own, but what is another's, and he says of himself: Not seeking what is profitable to myself but to the many, that they may be saved (Cor 10: 24, 35). Peter did not yet understand this when he desired to live with Christ on the mountain. He is keeping this for you, Peter, until after his death. But for now he says: Go down to work on the earth, to serve on the earth, to be despised, to be crucified on earth. Life goes down in order to be killed; bread goes down in order to hunger; the way goes down in order to grow weary on his journey; the spring goes down in order to thirst (Augustine, Ser 78, 6; PL 38, 492-93).

Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

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