While we reflect on the master-disciple relationship between Jesus and his disciples, the expectation is that theirs was a deeper personal relationship as well. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that in any way they considered Jesus to be their equal, the fact is that they shared their lives together, traveled together, and spent virtually every day together for the entire length of Jesus’ ministry. It is not unlikely that they occasionally engaged in “small talk” and shared their various concerns one with another. We could also expect that some of them were closer than others. There were also some natural relationships: Peter and Andrew were brothers, as were James and John.

As the disciples grow in their relationship with Jesus and as they begin to more deeply understand who he is – and specifically as spoken by Simon Peter in the Gospel we heard last week – they had also to begin to wonder why Jesus had chosen each of them with their own weaknesses and sins.

It would make sense that in being forced address the question from Jesus as to who he is, they would have to ponder that same question about themselves. “Who am I that the Lord would choose me?”

When considering the personal relationship and this level of reflection between Jesus and his disciples, then, Peter’s response to Jesus in today’s Gospel can make more sense. Jesus now tells them that they will go to Jerusalem and there he will be tortured and killed.

This must strike them on a visceral and deeply personal level. Peter for one cannot imagine that for Jesus. He obviously loves Jesus, he obviously has committed himself to Jesus and to the mission, he obviously has professed his belief in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, how then could he wish for his master, his messiah, the very Son of God, that he were to suffer and die? No one would wish this for a master, mentor or friend.

At the same time, and on a more personal level, Jesus speaking of his own Passion and Death would suggest to Peter and to the others that they, too, could suffer the same fate.

This, then, speaks to each of us on a personal level. Discipleship, Jesus reminds us, is supposed to be difficult. Each and every day we are to live discordant with the world around us, and to experience tension between ourselves and the values, attitudes and desires of the world.

Due to the increasing hostility of our culture to the virtues which lie at the center of our social teaching, and to the very fact of our belief, as attested to and witnessed by Peter and the other disciples, it is easier now to be a disciple of Jesus Christ than at any other time in the history of our country or that of western society. It is now that we are most clearly called to be otherworldly and to be out of step with the world. For a long time it was, or at least appeared to be, easy. “Everyone” was like us and believed like us. Many of us lived in neighborhoods defined by the Catholic parish, even by non-Catholics! While an anti-Catholic sentiment has been, and continues to be, endemic to the American experiment, it is only now that other Christians are also beginning to feel marginalized as well.

Jesus put his disciples at a crossroad: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” This is where the disciples are forced to take their commitment to follow Jesus yet another step. Certainly Peter and most of the others made the commitment to walk ahead.

That same fate may well stand in the balance for all of us. While unlikely that we will face torture and death, it is likely that we will see increased marginalization and diminishing of the general respect for our doctrinal statements and way of life.

Many sadly try too hard to compromise with the world thus unintentionally making a mockery of the central tenets of our faith. We also might wonder if it is here that Judas began to ponder a different response to Jesus.

Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.