REFLECTION FOR THE 22ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A
Readings for this Sunday: Jeremiah 20:7-9, Romans 12:1-2, and Matthew 16:21-27.
When we examine the readings for this Sunday, we are told, rather point blankly, that the life of a disciple of God is not an easy life.
I love that opening phrase from the reading from the prophet, Jeremiah.
“You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.” The prophet then goes on to say that his life has been miserable from the time God chose him as a prophet. I find it interesting that in Catholic liturgies, the concluding line from this chapter of Jeremiah is never used. Jeremiah writes:
“Cursed be the day* on which I was born! May the day my mother gave me birth never be blessed! Cursed be the one who brought the news to my father, “A child, a son, has been born to you!” filling him with great joy. Let that man be like the cities which the LORD relentlessly overthrew; Let him hear war cries in the morning, battle alarms at noonday, because he did not kill me in the womb! Then my mother would have been my grave, her womb confining me forever. Why did I come forth from the womb, to see sorrow and pain, to end my days in shame? (Jeremiah 20:14-18, NAB)
I think we can safely say that Jeremiah was having a pretty bad day, the day he wrote this. However, for those of us who have served in the Church, we all, at one time or another, have shared similar sentiments with those expressed by Jeremiah. Moses called the people he led, “stiff-necked people.” I think we all, in private, have created even more colorful metaphors for some of those whom we have served.
The path of a disciple of God is not an easy one. Teresa of Avila, a doctor of theology and saint in the Roman Catholic Church, once stated, “God, you wonder why you have so few friends. Look at the way you treat the ones you have!”
So, why is it that a disciple of God often faces opposition from people? Even the finest of God’s disciples have not only been persecuted by non-believers, but have been persecuted from their own religious authorities. I think of the saints and mystics of the Catholic Church, Joan of Arc, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, to name a few. Of course, the greatest of them all is Jesus of Nazareth who was not only opposed and attacked openly by the religious authorities of his religion, but who actively participated in his execution. So why is it so difficult for a disciple of God?
Jesus expresses this explicitly in today’s Gospel, when Peter remonstrates with him, telling him NOT to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. Jesus rebukes Peter saying, ““Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
A disciple of God lives a life that is in great contradiction and in direct opposition to the way that most humanity lives. Jesus speaks of this in the Gospels. He tells us that we must love as God loves, without any exception. We must love our enemies as we love ourselves. We must forgive our enemies as we forgive ourselves. We must place the common good of others before our own individual common good. A life of selfless love and service to others is bitterly opposed by a world consumed by self-indulgence and screwing over anyone who gets in the way of that self-indulgence. Humanity seeks to place itself over others and lord itself over others. The way of humanity is to engulf and devour (to share an image from Mel Brook’s movie, “Silent Movie”). The way of humanity is to divide, conquer, and enslave. We have seen this played out in the history of the United States since its inception, and has been glorified since the 1980’s. It is sickeningly on display for us everywhere today. The glorification of the self, the opulence of celebrity to the detriment of others is being broadcast in all media and social media and is justified by stating that this self-indulgent way of life is THE “American Dream.”
When disciples of God claim that this way of life is a false gospel, they will be persecuted not only by those who are non-believers, but by the authorities within their own religion. Jesus tells us in the Gospel today that this opposition from within and without religion is inevitable for the disciple of God.
“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?” (Matthew 16:24-26, NAB)
What is a disciple of God to do, faced with such a dismal prediction? St Paul in his letter to the Romans tells us, “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.” Paul, who was no stranger to hardship, persecution, and well knew the dangers of discipleship, knew that in discerning and conforming ourselves to the will of God, everything in the end will be okay.
Paul consuls the Roman community:
“He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him? Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us. Who will condemn? It is Christ [Jesus] who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: “For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.
“No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things,* nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,* nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:32-39, NAB)
In his wonderful book, The Lord Is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the Twenty-third Psalm, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote these words about the psalm verse, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me (Psalm 23:4, NAB). “God’s promise was that when we had to face the pain and unfairness of the world as we inevitably would, we would not have to face it alone, for He would be with us.”*
While we are not spared the harm and derision and danger that Jeremiah, St Paul, and Jesus experienced, as disciples of God, God does not abandon us but is right by our side as we walk through that valley of the shadow of death. We will have our crosses to carry. We will be persecuted and derided and, at times, suffer the same from those of our own religion. However, God will never abandon us but will remain faithful to us through it all. At the end of that path lies the entry way to the fullness of glory that God prepares for us.
*Kushner, Harold S.. The Lord Is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the Twenty-third Psalm (pp. 102-103). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
