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Sunday, August 30th, 2020, Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.

SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, August 30th, 2020, Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Sunday, August 30th, 2020, Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.

 

He turned and said to Peter.  "Get behind me Satan!  You are an obstacle to me.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
Matthew 16: 23

LOSING IS FINDING (The way of the cross)

What is it that prompts such an immediate harsh and hard answer to Peter by Jesus?  It sure looks like a nerve has been touched!  But isn’t this the Peter who gets answers right (just last Sunday: Who do people say that I am?...) Isn’t this Peter, 'the rock’ on whom Jesus will build his Church and the gates of the netherworld cannot touch?  Isn’t this Peter, the one who gets the ‘keys to the Kingdom?’  How then can he be ‘Satan’-‘the adversary, the enemy, the one who stands in Jesus’ way? Why and how?
 
There is of course something more to Peter’s misplaced boldness to take Jesus aside and rebuke him. This is not a minor mistake.  Peter is taking the opposite direction to God’s plan by his gesture.  Peter wants to repress God’s way with a better, more nuanced solution or plan.  Peter’s plan is an easier one with less or no suffering. You see, whenever Jesus mentions ‘Jerusalem’ it gets under the skin of the disciples. Jerusalem is a place of events. It is that place where Jesus will lose it all- suffer greatly, be killed and on the third day be raised. But who wants to be part of a failed project? The disciples are not excited about a ‘loser’ Savior (Messiah).  Nobody follows losers right?  So for Peter, Jesus does not have to go through with his ‘so called God’s ‘plan.  Peter has something better.  He will take care of this.  Peter is thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.
 
Peter’s rebuke of Jesus can be traced back to the third temptation of Jesus in the desert:
 

Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, And he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”
 
At this, Jesus said to him, "Get away, Satan!  It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’”  (Matthew 4: 8-10)

 
The tempter’s philosophy of living is one of ‘gain’ and ‘profit’.  You can get all you want in life if you don’t have to forfeit anything (worse for anyone).  You don’t have to ‘suffer or lose’.  The strategy is ‘gain’, ‘get ahead’!   On the contrary, God’s plan must require ‘the cross’, losing is the path to finding glory.  The way of Jesus demands ‘self emptying’ for others.  Do you see the clash that prompts Jesus' reaction?
 

Hence, Jesus goes in the Gospel to teach his great lesson on discipleship. The conditions of discipleship are:  

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? (Matthew 16: 24-26)
 

Do not follow Christ if you are going to repress God’s way for what you think is better! You may as well be your own savior, you see!  It is about embracing the self emptying way of Jesus.
 
Jeremiah the prophet learns this the hard way.  Jeremiah discovers that being a prophet is about ‘rooting up and tearing down’ one’s approach to life.  He reaches this after undergoing a deep interior crisis.  The results of his ministry are miserable. All that his message attracts is mockery, loneliness and laughter. “You duped me O LORD” ; “the word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach all day”  he says.  Yet Jeremiah truly in the inside of his being has been called and touched by the word of God.  He cannot run away from it.  It is a ‘consuming fire’ and yes it will bring with it persecutions and loss, but there will be fruits because it is GOD’s message and not his.
 
The Lesson of this weekend’s reading is ‘to lose is to find’.  We must adapt this self emptying manner of life.  There has to be a sacrificial quality to our lives as disciples/followers of Christ.  In our daily lives whenever the Life and Mission of the Gospel is in the balance we must be ready to give in, surrender, and ‘lose’  that mission be accomplished. And the mission of Jesus is to bring ‘life' to others.
 
As Christians, our mission in the world takes a whole new perspective when we seriously adapt Jesus self emptying way or quality to our daily living.  We live for more than self.  We look beyond just ‘my gain’ or ‘getting ahead’ or ‘my accomplishment’.  Couples lose themselves for each other to find themselves. Parents who refuse to endanger their family’s welfare by seeing their children not their careers, as top priority, lose but actually find.  Leaders who aim to promote the common good, not their personal interests, find themselves by losing themselves.  Losing is finding.
 
Take this all you and eat it, this is my body which is given up for you.  In the Eucharist and living the Eucharistic way, we will find that losing is finding.
 
Are you then, ‘really’ ready to follow Christ?
 
A Blessed Week in the Lord!
Fr. Anthony


View the below videos for other reflections on the readings.