22nd Sunday: "To lose is to find"

Matthew 16: 21 - 27

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/083020.cfm

Link to parish website below for Mass this Sunday, 8/30:

https://qpsalem.org/

(Still on vacation but here are some thoughts for this coming Sunday)

Any path or yard that is filled with rocks and stones would need to be cleared before you laid down fresh grass or a garden. By this time in our summer, strange as it is this year, you’ve already done so and are likely reaping a harvest of some sort. You may have carefully removed these obstacles, laid down fresh soil, planted and fertilized.  The results would be worth your effort and time well spent.

Our Gospel this Sunday, a continuation of Jesus’ conversation with Peter last Sunday, is a startling turn around from last Sunday’s statement by Peter to Jesus:  “You are the Christ” to which Jesus said, “You are rock and on this rock I will build my Church.”

So Peter the rock, may be filled with a bit of self-importance or maybe some confusion, and again speaks to Jesus but the Lord’s reaction is surprising:  “Get behind me Satan! You are an obstacle to me.” Suddenly Peter the rock now stands in the way of Jesus movement forward.  This rock needs to be moved before Jesus can continue? Similar words were spoken to the devil by Jesus during his temptation in the desert.  On three occasions the evil one failed to tempt Jesus to abandon his mission of selfless service and sacrifice rather and chose the road to vain glory and power. So what is the tension we see today?

Obviously meaning no personal dismissal of Peter,  Jesus reminds his disciples who “the Christ” truly is and what God intends his mission to be – an act of profound love through the sacrifice of his own Son for the sake of humanity’s salvation.  It’s not intended to be all glory and honor, as Peter and likely some of the others may have envisioned or hoped for, but now Jesus must return to Jerusalem where all the prophets of old were killed and complete his full mission from beginning to end.  

Peter’s well intended desire that no harm come to Jesus as he was predicting is more of a rejection of Peter’s naïve understanding of Jesus ultimate mission. Peter who thinks “not as God does but as human beings do” is confronted that his earthly expectation stands in the way, blocks the path like Satan in the desert, of Jesus fulfilling his mission. 

Still, here they are, in Caesarea Philippi, in the far north of Israel, a good distance away from the approaching darkness in Jerusalem and the hostile authorities, where no one knew they had gone.  Why couldn’t Jesus and his disciples just take their time and allow things to cool off and blow over? Just hide out for a while and reassess their mission before it’s too late.

It would be impossible to second guess Jesus’ thought but a temptation is hard to resist at times.  When such involves life or death – ease or suffering, most of us would likely run away and just say, “It isn’t worth it.” Yet, God’s plan is yet hidden from Peter's understanding.  So, move aside “rock” and follow. Peter and the others may have been puzzled by Jesus sudden turn away from opportunity yet they did not abandon him.

Like Jeremiah in our first reading, who viewed his call to prophesy as a kind of con job from God, “You duped me O Lord and I let myself be duped” still could not resist the responsibility God asked of him to call the people to task and warn them of the destruction that was coming.  Jeremiah could not hold back because to do so would be like, “fire burning in my heart.”  He must fulfill his God given mission.  Jesus stands in the line of the great prophets and he too must carry through on his Father’s plan for humanity despite the personal cost as the ultimate promise of the prophets and the hope for humanity’s salvation.

But, there lies the connection.  If we are to be authentic disciples of the Lord, we too must follow our mission which continues the same as Jesus– that given us at our baptism: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Our discipleship, when we were marked with the sign of the cross at our baptism and cleansed in the water of life, forever set us in one direction – to have the privilege and the burden to share in the mission of Christ, that of the Church, from beginning to end.

In light of this it gives a meaning to our sacrifice and suffering. The famed Christian apologist wrote:  “God . . . shouts in our pains; it is his megaphone to arouse a deaf world.” (C.S. Lewis: The Problem of Pain)

So we embrace the cross of Jesus as he did, each in our own way, and we can “shout” to a deaf world that needs to hear the Gospel through our life and our values. We live in a world that desires to eliminate all pain and suffering, all inconvenience, all that seems useless sacrifice and wants to replace it with a kind of perfection that pursues the values of fame, power, and pleasure. The suffering of today that the entire world is experiencing through this pandemic may well be a way in which God is shouting to us.

What does he want us to hear?  How can we speak a word of hope and faith to a world that is anxious to return to a perfect life that potentially places God on the back burner?  

Jesus’ embraced his cross and became for us a sign of victory over evil in the resurrection.  So too, we are called to be open and receptive to all that God asks of us from beginning to end – to carry our cross to the end. We can show the world that generosity, care for others, sacrificial service for a greater cause than our selves is the way Christ shows us. That openness to God implies daily humility and to always seek what God is asking of us. If we lose our present life and turn to the Lord more faithfully we will find a new life.

So, it’s not only about occasional burdens, daily crosses to carry, but rather about the loyalty of our entire lives as daily witnesses to the Christian Gospel – from beginning to end.  it has been said that if the world followed the teachings of Jesus fully, it would be a much better place to live. We do so most perfectly in the community of the Church and share one another’s joys and sorrows; one another’s crosses and resurrections. We may well be asked to hear that God must be first, that we are not in control, and that our conversion must be at hand. Is God shouting in our pain?

God of power and might, giver of every good gift,

put into our hearts the love of your name,

so that, by deepening our sense of reverence,

you too may nurture in us what is good

and by your watchful care,

keep safe what you have nurtured.

(Collect for Mass)