“Try to see things my way” as Paul McCartney once sang. It’s a common enough statement, one we often make in our lives when making a point. As is natural, we tend to see things from our own perspective first. We will judge any situation on how it affects us personally or will decide who to vote for in an election based on whose policies will benefit us the most. As humans, we have to learn to see things from someone else’s perspective. As Christians, this is an essential skill. This is not only so we can display empathy towards others, but because we are actually called to see things from someone else’s perspective. We are called to see the world as God does.

In our gospel reading today, Jesus announces that it is God’s plan to have the Messiah overcome violence and hate with peace and love. Rather than lead an army into Jerusalem and begin a war, Jesus reveals it is God’s will for Him to go there peacefully where He will be tortured and killed. Peter’s view is different. His understanding is that the Messiah is a great leader which means he cannot see this future for Jesus. He tries to dissuade Jesus from going through with it. Jesus warns Peter not too look at things through human eyes, but rather to see with God’s eyes. In our second reading, Paul tells the church that they too are to see their mission through God’s eyes. They belong out in the world where they are to go and minister to the least in society. Rather than see these people as “failures” as the world does, we are too see them as God does, as beloved and valued children.

If we are not careful, we can see the church as being for us, or those just like us. We can treat it as our own private member’s club. We can look outside our church with the eyes of the world and look down on those we see as different. We can then try and justify insulating ourselves from them because we don’t see them as God does. Paul is explicit that the church is not meant to stand apart from the world but is called to go out into it and to show God’s love and care to the “least”. Rather than be separate from others, we are to share in their lives by being a shoulder for them to cry on or be the life and soul of the party when they celebrate. By holding ourselves apart from others, we will never be able to demonstrate God’s love for them as Jesus did; as Jesus commands us to do. There are a lot of problems in our world so there are a lot of opportunities to show grace, compassion and love. If we can see others as God does, we can work it out.