Sunday, September 3, 2023

 TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

(Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27)

According to the common way of thinking, a prophet is someone who foretells the future. But we also hear how figures like Martin Luther King, who are not known for having predicted the future but for denouncing sin, are also prophets. In the gospel today we see Jesus doing both.

The Church provides the first reading as a focus for understanding Jesus as a prophet. Jeremiah is arguably the best known prophet in the Old Testament. His book is by far the most personal of all the prophets. In the reading, Jeremiah laments to God the deplorable condition in which he finds himself. He is exhausted after denouncing the sins of Israel without seeing repentance. In fact, he is ridiculed by people for his efforts to correct their faults.

Jesus is found in the gospel today in a similar situation. People have refused to put faith in him. His countrymen in Nazareth were scandalized at his visit. And the Pharisees challenge him every chance they get. Yes, it is true that Simon Peter has declared him "the Messiah, the Son of God." But now Peter himself shows little understanding of what this title means. When Jesus, acting as a prophet, informs him that he is going to suffer for being the Messiah, Peter openly opposes him.

Jesus then proves himself a prophet in the second sense of the word by reproaching Peter. He calls him “Satan,” the tempter who tries to divert people from doing what is right. In addition to having predicted what will happen to him, Jesus denounces the presumption that glory can be reached without experiencing the cross.

Here is a lesson on the spiritual life. It is always more than peace and harmony. Rather it includes moments of struggle. In the first place, we must control the passions that would suffocate us with pleasures. We must also discipline ourselves to overcome the will to pursue other transcendental goals like fame and power. Finally, we must rise above our critics, both friends and foes, who would lead us away from the often painful path to true life.

In the gospel Jesus, ever the insightful prophet, poses the invaluable question: "What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" By saying “life” here Jesus does not have in mind life on earth that will end with death. Rather he is referring to life with God that will never end. This life implies deeper longings such as reunion with our dead loved ones and the glory we had in the prime of life. Jesus tells us that there is only one way to this life -- that of joining him as his disciple.

The lesson here was demonstrated for newly elected popes with a dramatic ritual.  For more than five centuries, every time a new pope was carried from the sacristy of St. Peter's Basilica to the coronation site, the procession was interrupted three times. A monk carrying a brazier with burning flax shouted in Latin: “Sancte Pater, sic transit gloria mundi” which means “Holy Father, so passes the glory of the world”. It was a lesson for everyone. The power and fame even of the papacy is worth nothing more than a burning cloth if the person loses his soul, his life. May we not allow anything to interfere with our following of Jesus. Only he can bring us to lasting life.