TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Jeremiah 20: 7-9; Romans 12: 1-2; Matthew 16: 21-27

(Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah)

There is a common contrast running through today’s Readings between the life God calls us to and the many ways of not living up to that calling. St. Matthew’s Gospel tells us that suffering is an integral part of the earthly experience of God’s life. Jesus forewarns his disciples of his coming clash with the elders and the chief priests, and of his death and Resurrection. It is easy to imagine how disconcerted his disciples are; Peter rebukes Jesus: a suffering Messiah is beyond his comprehension. Jesus makes the condition for being Christian clear: taking up the cross every day. He then contrasts those who seek God’s Kingdom with those who dedicate themselves to other purposes. He suggests that even possessing the whole world would pale in comparison to possessing the Kingdom. The prophet Jeremiah laments bitterly to the Lord about his task. He has become an object of derision and scorn, and all because the Lord deceived him into this task. This is an amazingly honest confession of the hard times that those faithful to God must face. At the same time, Jeremiah seems to find within himself an urge to go on, almost despite himself. God’s message is “like a fire burning in my heart” (v.9). Later on in his “confessions,” Jeremiah experiences Yahweh “like a mighty hero” (v.11). St. Paul appeals to the Christian community in Rome not to lose their identity as Christians, not to live according to the pagan customs of the times. They are to be renewed in their minds to live out their Christian identity as God has revealed it to them.

In our gospel today, Jesus is doing an advertisement. He is selling a product. The name of this product is the Kingdom of God. We can have this at the expense of Jesus, who suffered for it on the cross. He was crucified. We acquire this as our own through discipleship. There is only one ingredient to becoming a disciple: self-denial, which entails suffering. That is why Jesus said: “If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The common experiences of life should convince us that often we have to lose something to gain something better. It is no different with our relationship with the Lord, who is our God. Even though it entails suffering, as we do so, Christ shows us how we gain peace, joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction. So, whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. So, in the Gospel, Jesus predicts his passion, death, and resurrection. Peter, often impetuous, shouts out: “God forbid. No such thing will happen to you, Lord.” But God’s ways are not ours. Through the cross, the central symbol of Christianity, the resurrection, new life, eternal life with God. Yes, good will triumph over evil; life over death. In light of the Gospel, I would like to reflect on the mystery of suffering. Why the mystery of suffering? Because hidden within the mystery of Jesus’ suffering is the glory of his resurrection. Within the mystery of suffering lies a spiritual power that can draw us closer to Jesus Christ and transform us into sharers in his eternal life. In fact, our Christian faith proclaims that hidden in every Good Friday is an Easter hope. Think about it. The point is simple enough. We sometimes find ourselves stuck in a Good Friday situation – our problems sometimes batter and may even overwhelm us. In such moments, our faith challenges us to remember that good ultimately will conquer evil, that love transforms hate, that light shatters darkness. The story of Jesus did not end in the tragedy of the cross but in the triumph of the resurrection. Yes, hidden within the mystery of suffering is the glory of the resurrection, eternal life.

In this reading, Jesus shows how taking up the cross is far more important than a life of pleasure or ease. Whether it is His own cross or that of His follower, taking up the cross is an indispensable condition to discipleship; That cannot be successfully marginalized. In the first reading, Jeremiah took up his own cross; though it was very heavy on him, he couldn’t abandon it. In the gospel reading, Jesus was sharing with His disciples that there can be no glory or crown without a cross; the processes for the life of glory must start in Jerusalem (a public appearance to vouch for God wherever that may be), be touched with great opposition, suffering, and death, and end with resurrection or the glorious life of heaven (cf. Matthew 16:21). To seek an alternative to taking up of one’s cross would be satanic because it constitutes a stumbling block to heaven, friendship with the world, and enmity with God. Peter, in all good intention, was seeking an alternative to Christ’s cross, but it earned him a great reproach. So, he learned that there can be no detours from taking up one’s cross — challenges, changes, chances, troubles, sicknesses, persecution, opposition, rejection, stress, false accusations, or quitting addictions. Also, Peter learned that becoming a follower of Christ requires denying oneself, taking up one’s cross, and following Him (cf. Matthew 16:24). Taking up one’s cross means accepting challenges and successfully working through them. It is done in God, in Christ, as one allows His power and word to prevail. God requires a response.

Jesus had firmly set his life on the path to fulfill his Father’s will, and continued to teach that his followers are also to embrace the Father’s will, even if that results in personal sacrifice. To embrace the sacrifices that come when one unites oneself with the will of God is not easy. It was not easy for the disciples, or even for Jesus. It was not any easier for the prophets of the Old Testament. We hear this clearly in the words of Jeremiah in our first reading today. But this is precisely where one’s mission in life becomes a source of empowerment. It is a driving force that carries one through the sacrifices and sufferings, demands and hardships that come with fulfilling one’s mission. This daily carrying of our Christian cross can be, and is for many, a prolonged martyrdom. Poverty, ill-health, cruelty and hardheartedness met with in the home and in one’s neighbors are heavy crosses which only a truly Christian shoulder can bear. But, if we were offered health, happiness, peace, wealth and power for the next fifty or seventy years on this earth, in exchange for an eternal heaven after death, what rational one among us would accept that offer? Christians know that this life is a period of training that prepares us to receive the eternal reward Christ has won for us. Every trainee knows that one must endure certain hardships and sufferings to merit graduation into one’s chosen profession or trade. On our Christian graduation day we shall, please God, hear the words of welcome: “Well done, good and faithful servant; because you have been faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater, come and join in your Master’s happiness” (Mt. 25:21).

We might wonder how Peter was expected to think like anything other than a human being. After all, that is what he was. Peter was not the Son of God. But there was a way, and there is a way for us to think as God does; that is, to learn from God, to listen to him, to believe what he tells us. It is the way of prayer and faith. That is no different than learning from any great teacher. When we learn from a great teacher, we absorb their thoughts, insights, perspectives, and truth. We begin to think like them. When God tells us something, and we listen and believe it, we are seeing and knowing as God sees and knows, even if we cannot fully understand everything at the time. We are beginning to think as he does. Peter’s problem was that he stopped listening to Jesus when Jesus started talking about suffering, and he began dictating to Jesus how things were going to be. That is when he got into trouble. We have been called to a life of prayer and faith. For us today, with freedom of religion, it is not as challenging for us to live that life as it was for those who followed Christ in the earliest days of the Church. If we feel fortunate, we should be willing to take up our crosses daily, follow Christ, and, along the way, share our faith with others who are still in the world. Like Jeremiah and our Savior Jesus Christ, we must continue to love our neighbors even if they revile and mock us for our fidelity to God. They especially need our love and our prayer; and in doing that, we would be saving their souls by drawing them to Christ with our good example. Let us not be found wanting in this mission given by God to each one of us.