August 31^st 2014.  TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Matthew 16:21-27

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL Matthew 16:21-27

Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord;’ he said ‘this must not happen to you’.
But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?

‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour.’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading tells of the internal struggle in the prophet Jeremiah between the desire for self-preservation and the burning desire to follow the Lord. In the Gospel reading, Jesus tells the disciples that he must suffer greatly in order to fulfil his mission. Peter takes Jesus aside and remonstrates with him. He thinks Jesus should be able to complete his mission without having to undertake the journey to that goal. In reply Jesus says “Get behind me Satan!” This is addressed to Peter who had just been made the rock on which the church is to be built! The struggle within Jeremiah and Peter is the same struggle within each of us. It is the struggle between flesh and blood (Simon, son of John) and the spirit that the Lord has instilled in each of us (the new name, Peter, that the Lord bestows on us). Each of us has a natural inclination towards self-preservation, comfort, the avoidance of suffering. But the process of becoming children of God involves an inevitable element of purification. To become a child of the Kingdom, I must learn how to love, and love requires self-denial. None of us can be a faithful spouse, parent or friend if we do not learn to deny our own projects and interests. Following Jesus involves a cost to ourselves, but this cost is small when we realize that it is the cost of renouncing our previous limited egocentric life and embracing the eternal life that the Lord has to offer.

The internal struggle that Jeremiah experiences is a struggle that exists inside each one of us

The remarkable first reading tells of the moment of crisis that has befallen Jeremiah. He has been called to do the work of the prophet but he does not have the kind of combative character that befits a prophet. His denouncement of evil and injustice has led to him being cast out by his own people. Now he laments: “You have seduced me Lord. You have overpowered me.” What is Jeremiah referring to here? In what way has the Lord done him violence? The battle that Jeremiah is speaking of is an internal one. He was determined to stop prophesising and not even to think of the Lord any more. But a fire continued to burn within him that he could not contain. The violent tension that exists within Jeremiah is the tension between the wonderful spirit that the Lord has given and the desire to protect himself, to defend his own comfort and wellbeing. This internal struggle exists within each of us and is the theme of the Gospel.

Peter wants to arrive at the goal of Jesus’ mission without undertaking the necessary journey

Jesus has a wonderful mission to accomplish, the opening of the door to the Kingdom of Heaven for all people. He must do so by undergoing the worst fate of the prophets: rejection by the priests and elders, a cruel execution before his resurrection on the third day. It is the final goal of his mission that is most important and which makes the rest comprehensible. The goal is wonderful but the journey to the goal is terrible. Peter intervenes to assert that this terrible journey must not be undertaken. In reply, Jesus says: “Get behind me Satan!” A short time earlier (as we read in last Sunday’s Gospel), Jesus had made Peter the rock on which the Church is built, but now he calls him Satan! But there is no-one in the world who does not have to undergo the internal struggle of Jeremiah. Each of us wishes to flee and each of us has to discover the internal strength of obedience. We all long for comfort, wellbeing, self-preservation, the absence of suffering. Self-preservation is a natural aspiration. But this inclination must be superseded by something else. “If anyone wishes to follow me, then he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” There is a part of ourselves that we must renounce. There is within me a life that is small. The Lord wishes to replace that with a life that is greater, the life of the child of God. The old life was that of Simon, son of John, the life of flesh and blood, as we saw in last Sunday’s Gospel. The new life is the life of Peter. The new name given to Peter signifies a new existence that is born of a different Father. This new life comes from the Easter mystery, a mystery that is forever incomprehensible to our way of thinking.

To become children of God we must embrace the life of the Kingdom of Heaven. This requires renouncing the smaller life that each of us is so willing to preserve. To live the life of the child of God is to live for others, and this requires the painful element of renouncing the preoccupation with our own life

The Lord forms us through suffering and pain. There are also many beautiful things in life that lift us up and give us consolation. But there is an element of purification in life that is indispensable. This transforms our being and makes us children of God. This internal struggle of the cross is something that plays itself out within us. In the end there are two types of people: the ones who preserve themselves, and those who open themselves in faith; the one who defends his own life, and the one who embraces life in Christ. If we opt for preserving our own life, then we opt for a life that is finite, delusory, mediocre. When, by contrast, we opt for the life of Christ, then we opt for the Kingdom of Heaven, we opt for a life that is stable, solid, authentic.

Love is impossible without self-renunciation. The cost of love is undeniable, but the prize of eternal life makes that cost worthwhile

Love is the most important thing in the world. Is it possible to love if we do not know how to renounce our own selves? How can a man love a woman for his entire life if he is not capable of saying no to his own egoism? How can we love a child, a friend, or the Church if self-preservation is our first priority? We must frequently put others first, choosing the Kingdom of heaven, choosing to lose our own life in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who can transform death into life. The struggle of Jeremiah is our struggle! It is well worthwhile to say yes to God! This yes has a cost associated with it, but it is a cost that is small when compared to what God gives us in exchange for it – eternal life.