22nd Sunday in ordinary time (A) 30th August 2014 Short Reflection on the Gospel (Matthew 16:21-27) Reading todays Gospel, my memory goes back to my theological formation days. As a student in theology I was assigned to St. Annes Parish for my Sunday ministry. The Parish priest asked me to co-ordinate the Parish choir and also to teach catechism to those getting ready for confirmation. On one Lenten Sundays as we were discussing on the different Stations of the Cross we got to the fourth Station were Jesus on the road to Calvary meets his mother. To make the class participate in the discussion I asked What do you think Mary and Jesus would have said to each other? since none of their spoken words were recorded in the gospels. The class gave many different answers. One kid suggested that Mary must have said, This is unfair. Another kid suggested that Jesus would have said, Why me? Finally a sickly little girl raised her thin hand, got up and said: I know what the Blessed Mother told Jesus. She said to him, Keep going, My son! Remember; no cross, no crown. I am sure you remember the Gospel reading of last Sunday where we read about Simon Peter recognizing and confessing Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the Living God and thereupon Jesus named him Rock on whom the church would be built. The incident was a highpoint in the development of the mission of Jesus. From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. Like all Jews at the time of Jesus, his disciples are in the opinion about him as a Messiah who would bring instant glory to Israel in terms of military success, wealth and prosperity. So, when Peter heard Jesus announce that he must first endure the cross and suffer, Peter thought that Jesus must have made a mistake. So he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, saying, God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you. Peter was asking Jesus to abandon the narrow and hard way of the Messiah for the broad and easy way of the World. Jesus now looks Peter in the face and says to him, Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; your mind is not on divine things but on human things. Remember there is no crown without a cross. We must be sure of this brothers and sisters; the gospel of Christ is a coin with two sides: the cross and the crown. If we try to embrace one side, the glorious side, and reject the other, the suffering side, we falsify the His Gospel. The same Jesus who said, Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest also said, If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it”. Do we come to Jesus then to be freed from our burdens or do we come to Jesus to take on the cross? We come to Jesus to be freed from our meaningless and futile burdens and, in its place, take on the cross that leads to salvation and glory. Todays gospel challenges us to say no to the very attractive but one-sided worldly gospel of instant glory, a sugar-coated gospel that offers the false promise of no cross, all crown. Did you ever hear it on the television: Only believe and everything will go well with you? It did not all go well with Jesus; he still had to endure the cross. It did not all go well with Mary; a sword of sorrow still pierced her soul. It did not all go well with the countless men and women saints who have gone before us. Why then should it all go well with you and me? In the face of disappointment, bereavement, sickness, ingratitude and failure, our faith response should be, not to question Why me? but to recognize that these crosses and contradictions are the necessary condition for our future glory. The world is the place for the cross. The place for the crown is heaven. { :) em :( }
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 15:39:43 +0000
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