Word to the Wise
Sunday, August 28, 2011 - 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Jer 20:7-9; Rom 12:1-2; Matt 16:21-27,20]Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do! [Matt] 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. [Romans]
Poor Peter! He got it spectacularly right when he answered Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?" Now he gets it spectacularly wrong when he responds in horror to Jesus' prediction of his passion and resurrection: "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you!" Peter's notion of Jesus obviously does not include suffering, death and resurrection! Jesus has to tell him and all the disciples again and again that discipleship means: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me....." The disciples are all too prone to think "as human beings do," and "not as God does." In short, unpleasantness of any kind should be denied! Who wants a religion of suffering?
Jesus simply confronts us with that denial! He is going to suffer terribly. All of us will at some point or another. He is offering us solidarity with him in our own suffering. If we deny his suffering because we need a hero who is above such things, we cut ourselves loose from the best support we could have in our own trials! If we accept his offer, we begin to "think as God does." St. Paul challenges us to a renewal of mind instead of being conformed "to this age." If we profess Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the living God," we must also embrace his suffering as our own and his resurrection as our hope. AMEN