TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR A

OFFER LIFE IF YOU DON’T WANT TO LOSE IT

Introduction

“In the days of trouble” (Ps 77:3) we call upon the Lord because we are convinced that “he gives life and breath and everything else to everyone” (Acts 17:25). We appeal to the saints, visit shrines, kiss relics, make novenas... always to have life. The crowds sought Jesus, “they tried to dissuade him from leaving” (Lk 4:42). They touched him “because of the power that went out from him and healed them all” (Lk 6:19). They approach him for life. He said, “I have come that they may have life, life in all its fullness” (Jn 10:10).

Yet there is something of a paradox in his proposal, indeed, absurd. To achieve life, it is necessary to lose it, “I lay down my life to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down freely” (Jn 10:17-18). He justifies his choice of comparing himself with the seed: “Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (Jn 12:24).

It takes a lot of faith to be convinced that, to have life, you must “give it up to death” (Rev 12:11). Strange, disturbing logic! God assures Abraham a posterity as numerous as the stars in the sky and asks him tosacrifice his son, Isaac, who should have begun the chain of making the promise a reality. A test like this may well be faced only by someone who firmly believes, like Abraham.

Jesus promises to introduce the disciple into this life. “The one who follows me will have the light of life...will never see death... will never experience death” (Jn 8:12.51-52) ... and goes towards the cross; he plunges into the waters of death. But ‘he will re-emerge’ on Easter Day. Blessed are those who dare to follow him: he will give them to eat of the “tree of life” (Rev 2:7). They “will be with him forever” (1 Thes 4:17), and they shall“see God as he is” (1 Jn 3:2)

To internalize the message, we repeat:“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

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 First Reading: Jeremiah 20:7-9

You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.

Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; the word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach all the day.

I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it. 

“Trust in Him and let him act and he will make the justification of your cause bright as the sun” (Ps 37:5-6). It is what a wise old man suggests to a disciple. At the end of his upright life, he is convinced that God has lavished favors and blessings on him for his righteousness. “God is good with the just, with people of clean heart” (Ps 73:1). This is the traditional doctrine of Israel, the indisputable truth of just retribution. Yet, faced with the denial of the facts, too often incomprehensible, all the dogmas of the faith seem disingenuous, drivel, sometimes even a mockery or provocation.

In the reading, the desperate reaction of a man who, faced with the absurdity of his life, turns on God with a reckless, almost blasphemous, accusation: ‘You have betrayed me!’ It is Jeremiah, the prophet, who faced persecution, mishap, and all sorts of trouble because of his fidelity to his mission. At one point, he could bear no more and cried out in a complaint to God.

Here are the facts: we are in Jerusalem during the dramatic years preceding the destruction of the city and the deportation to Babylon. The country is on the brink of disaster and the king, Jehoiakim, a coward, is more interested in constructing his luxurious palace than the impending ruin of his people. The priests preach a futile, imaginary religion, cold execution of external rites and ceremonies, which do not correspond to the change of heart and a life according to God’s law.

It is in this situation that God called Jeremiah: “Go whatever be the mission I am entrusting to you, and you will speak of whatever I command you to say.” The prophet is scared; he is young; he does not know how to speak, but the Lord assures him: “Do not be afraid … for I will be with you to protect you … They will fight against you but shall not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue you” (Jer 1:7-8,19).

How can we not believe him? Jeremiah agrees, but then misunderstanding sets in. Contrast and contradiction arise, conflict with the king, the commanders of the army, and the religious authorities. The situation explodes. Even the people, angry and disappointed, ask the prophet to be silent. The avowed enemies can no longer tolerate him. They collect evidence against him, have him arrested. They beat him and subject him to a process in which, luckily for him, he will be acquitted.

The worst seems to be over, although tension, anxiety and discomfort have marked his life profoundly and shaken his psychological balance. It is at this point that Jeremiah raises his lament mentioned in today’s reading to God. It opens with a lively image, the most daring of the entire Bible: “Yahweh, you have seduced me, and I let myself be seduced” (v. 7). The prophet likens his vocation to a seduced girl who, having been flattered by the sweet words of a young man and succumbed to his proposal, is abandoned to her fate. She has nothing more but to curse the moment she believed in a false love.

Here is how Jeremiah feels: alone against all and an object of the people’s ridicule and violence. Why did God call him to a mission that is proving to be a failure? Anguished, he wonders how he allowed himself to be seduced. Why didn’t he stick with his tranquil life with his family and working in the fields of the peaceful town of Anathoth? In his despair, he exclaims: “I’ll think no more of God and speak no more in his name” (v. 9). It is a cry loaded with anger and the bitterness of a lover trying to cut off a stormy and troubled relationship in which he had become involved.

But, as anyone who has experienced an overwhelming affection knows, Jeremiah fails to free himself of the Lord who has seduced him. The passion burns in his heart like a fire that is impossible to extinguish. Despite the excruciating pain and disappointment that he undergoes, he cannot give up his mission.

Second Reading: Romans 12:1-2

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Do our liturgical celebrations that are not accompanied by works of love interest God? The prophets said it, and Jesus recalls it often: God “desires works of love, not practices of worship” (Mt 9:13). The first words remind us that the solemn liturgies of the temple are replaced by a new way of praising God: the sacrifice of our own lives offered for the brothers and sisters (v. 1). If our liturgies do not celebrate a life of love, they are reduced to an empty ceremony, without content, pure exterior ritual, and needless formalism.

Paul continues advising Christians not to comply with the ‘mentality of this world.’ In the language of the New Testament, this expression does not have a temporal reference but does have a qualitative one. It is the dominant mentality, the way of thinking deemed normal, prudent, and sensible by all. This logic easily penetrates the mind and heart. It is assimilated and, without even realizing it, Christians also end up thinking like the others and adapt themselves to the current morality. This mechanism of integration is devious and dangerous. We need to become aware and be vigilant in order not to get sucked in. That’s why the apostle invites all to renew their thinking to continually discern what behavior is acceptable to God, even if it is incomprehensible to people.

 Gospel: Matthew 16:21-27

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” 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.”

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “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? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.” 

The Jews of Jesus’ time lived in expectation of a better world, the ‘century to come,’ filled with peace and justice. Basing themselves on Ezekiel 49, the rabbis announced that the ‘last days’ would bring a miraculous transformation of the earth. They assured that in the days of the Messiah, Palestine would be transformed into a garden, and the garden would become a forest. The fertility of the soil would increase thousands of times. There would be an abundance for all, an abundance of everything, as in the heavenly period at the beginning.

The apostles also cultivated these hopes. They were convinced that the coming of the Kingdom of God was imminent. They had realized that their master was the Christ, the long-awaited ‘Son of David.’ They had followed him to see their dreams of glory realized. The only question which, according to them, was still pending was to determine who would be entitled to the first places (Mk 9:34).

In the context of these expectations, the first of the three announcements of the Passion found in the Gospel is placed. In the middle of his public life, Jesus is aware of the need to decisively correct the convictions of his disciples. He does not want them to follow him, lolling in vain illusions. To avoid ambiguity, he openly declares that he is not walking towards triumph, but he is going to Jerusalem to suffer a lot, be killed, and be raised again on the third day (v. 21).

Human logic cannot but be upset in the face of such a proposal. The disciples cannot understand because they learned from the scribes that the Messiah could not die. It was taught to them that, at his coming, the righteous who lie in their graves would rise to take part in the joy of his Kingdom, and Peter, in the name of all reacts (vv. 32-33). He is not afraid of sacrifice. One day he will prove this by risking his life if necessary (Jn18:10), but he is not willing to commit himself to an absurd project. He will not stand on a road that leads straight to failure. He wants Jesus to know this and change his mind.

The scene that follows is highly significant and realistic. Peter takes the Master apart to cheer himself up in a moment of despair. He wants to make him understand that it is understandable that an unfortunate phrase may also escape his lips in a moment of confusion. The reaction of Jesus to the attempt to dissuade him from his path is hard, almost irritating: “Get behind me, Satan,” says our text, but the translation is not exact. Jesus does not intend to dismiss Peter but to put him on the right path. ‘Get behind me’—he says— ‘follow my steps, do not try to precede me, as one who claims to lead the way. The Father draws this and you, Peter, make a proposal that comes from worldly wisdom, from human foolishness that is senseless in God’s eyes.’

Peter is not committing a simple mistake. He is moving away from the Lord. He is acting just like Satan, who tried to convince Jesus to focus on the domain, on the conquest of power. He had led him to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, saying, “All this I will give you, if you kneel down and worship me.” But Jesus had decidedly reacted: “Be off, Satan” (Mt 4:8-10). Now the same temptation—advanced by Peter—cannot but be responded to equally harshly. The scene described in today’s Gospel can be paired with that of last Sunday. Simon had been named by Jesus as the living stone of the Church because he had received the revelation of the Father, had accepted his plan of salvation, and had professed his faith in the Son of the living God. Now he becomes a stumbling block because he lets himself be guided by human reasoning, which aims for glory, success and honor, which are obstacles in the path of the Master and his disciples.

After rebuking Peter, Jesus turns to all (vv. 24-27) and unequivocally puts forward his demands. There is no attempt to mitigate them, to make them more palatable. If the Master has chosen to give life and if “the disciple is not above the master” (Mt 10:24), the path will have to be the same.

Three imperatives characterize the radical nature of a choice that does not admit delays or second thoughts: “Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.”

Deny yourself means to stop thinking about yourself. It is the reversal of the principles governing relations between people in this world. It is the rejection of what all believe to be positive stimuli because they push people to action: the pursuit of self-interest, the will to achieve gratification, acknowledgment and benefit. Even in the purest acts of love, there is often some veiled selfishness and ambition. The disciple of Christ is called, first, to give up any claim to personal gain, even a spiritual one. He does not do good to accumulate merit in heaven, to take a step up in spiritual progress. He acts thinking only about his brother and sister. He does not give even a minimum of consideration to the positive impact of good works on his person. He loves freely, in pure loss, as does the Father.

The second imperative, take up your cross, does not refer to the need to patiently endure either small or big tribulations in life, even less, the exaltation of pain to please God. The Christian does not seek to suffer but to love. The cross is the sign of love and a total gift. To carry it in Christ’s footsteps means to follow the way he has trod to offer your life for the same ideals and confront, if necessary, even persecution and death to remain faithful to the Gospel. ‘Carry the cross’—the sacrifice of self for good and advantage of others.

The third imperative, follow me, does not mean ‘take me as a model,’ but share my choice, participate in my project, bet your life on love, together, with me.

The concluding verses (vv. 25-27) present three reasons with which Jesus tries to convince his disciple to accept the three difficult conditions he has just put forward.

The first: the one who gives his own life does not lose it but gains it (v. 25). Whoever holds tight in their own hands the grain of wheat, who consumes it themselves or hides it, will only dissipate it. Only those who dare to lose it, ‘preserve’ it, ‘recover’ it. It also happens with life: to earn it, ‘we must lose it.’ It is necessary to expend it on the brothers and sisters.

The second reason (v. 26): the life of this world passes quickly. It is transient, fragile, and precarious; it is not worth clinging desperately to as if it were eternal. Here numerous and wise reflections on the transience of life ring out: “You allow me to live but a short span; before you, all my years are nothing. Human existence is a mere whiff of breath. Humans are mere shadows that go about relentlessly. Being but a breath they toil and rake in wealth, not knowing who will take it next" (Ps 39:6-7)

The third reason (v. 27): the ultimate reward. The scene of judgment often occurs in the Gospel of Matthew. It is not a threat about the future but an indication of the wise choices that can be made in the present. What can we present to God at the end of life? Certainly not money accumulated, a pleasure enjoyed, or awards earned during our career. In the end, the Lord will not look at the titles of honor that we may be able to put after our name but the works of love that go with our name. When the spotlights that dazzled this world are turned off, and when the deceptive glitter of idols that enchanted and seduced are extinguished, then only the light of God will shine, and the true value of each person will appear.

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READ: You must discern the will of God: what is good, what pleases, what is perfect.

REFLECT: God’s will—what is good, perfect, pleasing. This is our life’s aim. We need to discern it always to hit the mark.

PRAY: We are aware of how we often miss the mark: our sins. Let us aim to do what’s more positive so we would really be praising God.

ACT: Ponder the difference between being really discerning and merely discriminating.