22nd Sunday in the Ordinary Time (Year A) August 31, 2014 I. GOSPEL READING (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 all according to his conduct.” Points for Reflection 1. “Jesus began to show his disciples . . .” After Peter’s confession, Jesus started confiding to his disciples what it means for him to be the Messiah. “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.” This was shocking to Peter, as it was a common expectation then among the Jews that their longed-for messiah would be a warrior-king or a political leader who would fight and defeat their oppressors. 2. “God forbid, Lord . . .” Hearing this for the first time, Peter was horrified and “took Jesus aside.” He listened to Jesus, yes, but seems to have only heard “suffer greatly” and “be killed,” and failed to catch the last phrase: “and on the third day be raised.” The thought of Jesus undergoing that kind of cruelty was too much for him: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you!” Its easy to imagine the scene where he most likely pulled Jesus to himself and literally stepped in front of him, thus blocking their progress to Jerusalem. 3. “Get behind me, Satan . . . “ Here, we are brought back to the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness. At that time, Satan also “took Jesus aside” and tried to tempt Jesus to repudiate the path God ordained for him: self-denial, humility and obedience. Jesus told him: “Get away, Satan” (Mt 4:10). Jesus’ harsh rebuke to Peter calling him Satan was metaphorical. His thinking “not as God does, but as humans do” made him an obstacle to God’s plan. Maybe we can understand Peter, though, for at that time, suffering as part of God’s plan was not yet within the grasp of his mind. Still, his act of taking Jesus aside was uncalled for as he was apparently trying to get ahead of Our Lord. Thus, the command to “get behind me” was meant to bring Peter back to his senses: Jesus leads; he and the other disciples follow. 4. “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it . . .” Peter still had much to learn about thinking “as God does.” In order to prepare him, Jesus spoke about the mystery of God’s way: “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel will save it.” This is the hard lesson that he and the other disciples would need to learn. In the First Reading (Jer. 20:7-9), Jeremiah helps us to visualize this teaching. Feeling “duped” into preaching, though he also admitted: “I let myself be duped,” Jeremiah thought of giving up: “I will not mention him; I will speak in his name no more.” As he cried out to the Lord in prayer, there came a strong leading that “becomes like fire burning in my heart; imprisoned in my bones. I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.” In this, Jeremiah foreshadows Jesus. There was also a “fire burning” in his heart, and fulfilling the Father’s Will was “imprisoned” in his bones. He could not “endure” any deviation from it. This burning feeling is the deep “thirsting” for God, which we pray in the Psalm (Ps. 63:2,3-4,5-6,8-9), where power, glory and kindness is “greater good than life.” 5. “Do not conform to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” We have to admit that we are still far from the ideal of what Jesus teaches. We may mostly still think as humans beings do; slow to accept that human suffering is part of God’s plan. With this natural temptation besetting us, Paul calls us to the “renewal” of our minds; not to conform to the dictates of the world, but to think as God thinks (Rom. 12:1-2). When we cling tightly to the culture and the comforts of this world, we risk losing out on the real Life that God desires for us. Peter proposed exactly that to Jesus in the Gospel and our Lord had to correct him and call him back to allegiance to God’s way. As the apostles would soon learn, the path to glory - both for Jesus and for us - cannot avoid the cross. Suffering, though, is never the end of the story for those who walk behind Jesus. “For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.” (Mt 16:27) II. OUR LADY’S MESSAGE: “WITH ME BENEATH THE CROSS” (Message 124) April 8, 1977 Good Friday a. Today, beloved sons, I am bringing you with me to Calvary; with me beneath the Cross of my Son, where I became your Mother. b. Here I want to teach you to love. c. There is no greater love than to give ones life for those whom one loves. Look at my Son Jesus who is dying on the Cross for you. He is dying because He is giving his life. He is giving his life out of love. d. My motherly Heart feels Him dying, and it is pierced by all his horrible agony. e. My motherly love unites with his in loving you; my sons, learn from us always to love thus! f. Here I want to teach you to suffer. g. My Son Jesus has become nothing other than the Man of Sorrows. He no longer bears resemblance to a man; He is crushed under the weight of suffering, cruelly beaten, outraged, humiliated. He suffers without complaint; as gentle as a little lamb, He is nailed to the Cross. h. Behold the path along which I am calling you today: that of Calvary which you must tread with docility and meekness. i. Do not seek to escape this trial; do not beg for human consolation. You will always find the Heart of your Mother who will help you to say yes to the Will of the Father. j. Here I want to teach you to be silent. k. The word of my Son is silent in these final moments. Now He speaks with his life. This is the supreme witness to the Will of God. l. Thus the last word of his life comes forth: a word of pardon for all and of complete abandonment to the Father. m. Learn today especially to be silent. Create a silence within yourself in order to hear only his divine word. n. Create silence about yourself. Do not reply to the criticisms and the calumnies of him who does not accept you. o. Give no answer to the sneers and the offenses of him who persecutes you. Judge no one. p. In the moments that await you, you will be called upon more and more to keep silent. You will speak by your life. And for you too, from this life of yours on the Cross, will come forth the word of love for all men and of complete abandonment to the Will of the Father. Points for Reflection In her message, our Lady brings us with her to Calvary. John, who himself was in this scene, wrote a touching account of this: “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home” (Jn. 19:25-27). Jesus, before dying to redeem us had his Mother in mind, to whom he lovingly entrusted his beloved disciple. Regarding this, Our Lady in another message tells us: “And so, you understand why I feel a particular predilection for you” (Message 291 f). “Beneath the Cross” with her, our Lady invites us to ponder, as she teaches us to love, to suffer and to be silent like Jesus, in total abandonment to the Father’s Will. 1. Here I want to teach you to love. (124 b) Love in order to be true should be selfless. Our Lady points us to her Son who is the model of selfless love: “Look at my Son Jesus who is dying on the Cross for you. He is dying because he is giving his life. He is giving his life out of love” (Message 124 c). Selfless love is shown above all in Jesus’ obedience to the Father (Jn. 14:31). United with his, Our Lady says, is her motherly love (Message 124 e). In a separate message, she said: “His ‘yes’ to the Father, my ‘yes’ to the Son, united us wholly and forever after, in the perfect realization of the divine Will” (Message 261 g). Thus, she invites us: “Learn from us always to love thus!” (Message 124 e) 2. Here I want to teach you to suffer. (124 f) Our Lady reiterates to us Jesus requirement for his disciples in following him: “Behold the path along which I am calling you today: that of Calvary which you must tread with docility and meekness” (Message 124 h). Again, she points to her Son this time as the model of suffering: “My Son Jesus has become nothing other than the Man of Sorrows. He no longer bears resemblance to a man; He is crushed under the weight of suffering, cruelly beaten, outraged, humiliated. He suffers without complaint; as gentle as a little lamb, He is nailed to the Cross.” (Message 124 g) She teaches us to look at suffering as courageous witnessing to the world, “showing Jesus to all as the only Savior and Redeemer,” because there is no other possibility of salvation except in the Crucified Jesus (Message 393 f). In taking this path of suffering, Our Lady offers us her Heart, which helps us to “say yes to the Will of the Father” (Message 124 i). Through our consecration to her, she disposes us “according to the Will of God” (Message 287 m), making our capacity to suffer extraordinarily more powerful, “because you will feel as the Heart of your Mother feels!” (Message 22 h). Thus, she exhorts us not to seek to escape the cross, nor crave for human consolation amidst our trials. Her Immaculate Heart contains all the graces that we would need in order to be victorious. 3. Here I want to teach you to be silent. (124 j) Silence is not simply the absence of sound. It is, rather, living our life in love similar to how Jesus lived his. To live this way, we need to first create “a silence within” (Message 124 m). Here, Our Lady refers to “an interior solitude,” which can be attained through detachment from creatures, from the world, from our occupations, and even from our very selves. “Interior solitude” enables us to hear “the voice of the great silence” which is the Father Himself. Jesus prayed to Him without cease, even in the midst of his works. With Jesus, Our Lady offers to lead us to this state of deep prayer (Message 195 h-k). In his final moments, Jesus last word was “of pardon for all and of complete abandonment to the Father.” (Message 124 l). To live our life like Jesus lived his is to make the “supreme witness to the Will of God” (Message 124 k). “In the moments that await you, you will be called upon more and more to keep silent. You will speak by your life. And for you too, from this life of yours on the Cross, will come forth the word of love for all men and of complete abandonment to the Will of the Father” (124 p). May we learn to give our wholehearted Yes! to what our Lady wants for us. God bless you all! Yours in the Immaculate Heart, Fr. Omer
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 02:30:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015