22nd Sunday In Ordinary Time :: Op-stjoseph.org

The Cross as the Way to Heaven Scripture Readings First Jeremiah 20:7-9 Second Romans 12:1-2 Gospel Matthew 16:21-27 Prepared by: Fr. James Cuddy, O.P. 1. Subject Matter •

The Galilean preaching ministry of our Lord has come to an end. The long journey to Jerusalem and to the Cross has begun.

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Christ lays out the paradoxical course of discipleship: true life through the laying down of one’s life.

2. Exegetical Notes •

Jeremiah: The prophet complains that he has been tricked and bullied by God. He “has been sent ‘to root up and to tear down, to build and to plant’ (1:10); until now, his message corresponded only with the first part of the program. Therefore, he had to face constant persecutions. He had been deceived, for if he could have built and planted, the situation would have been different” (JBC). Nevertheless, the God’s word is a consuming fire and he has no choice but proclaim it.

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Romans: The act of offering oneself carries with it a sacrificial connotation, but unlike the sacrifice of animals to gods who cannot save, the offering of oneself to God brings life and freedom to man.

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Matthew: The beginning part of the pericope is rife with stumbling blocks (skandalon); the suffering messiahship of Jesus scandalizes the disciples, while Peter’s rebuke threatens to cause the Lord to stumble. The latter part of the passage describes the demands of discipleship. Again, we are brought face to face with one of the great paradoxes of the faith: “The preservation of the person is achieved only by yielding to the person of Jesus. One who saves his life may lose himself” (JBC). Further, “the true and lasting value of the person transcends the conditions of the present existence. The whole world is not a sufficient recompense for the surrender of the self to prolong one’s earthly life” (Ibid).

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

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2584 “In their ‘one to one’ encounters with God, the prophets draw light and strength for their mission. Their prayer is not flight from this unfaithful world, but rather attentiveness to The Word of God. At times their prayer is an argument or a complaint, but it is always an intercession that awaits and prepares for the intervention of the Savior God, the Lord of history.”

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2031 “We present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, within the Body of Christ that we form and in communion with the offering of his Eucharist. In the liturgy and the celebration of the sacraments, prayer and teaching are conjoined with the grace of Christ to enlighten and nourish Christian activity. As does the whole of the Christian life, the moral life finds its source and summit in the Eucharistic sacrifice.

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540 “Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him.”

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607 “The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus’ whole life, for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation.”

4. Patristic Commentary •

St. Hilary: “The Lord, knowing the suggestion of the craft of the devil, says to Peter, Get you behind me; that is, that he should follow the example of His passion.”

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St. John Chrysostom: “For what wonder is it that this should befall Peter, who had never received a revelation concerning these things? For that you may learn that that confession which he made concerning Christ was not spoken of himself, observe how in these things which had not been revealed to him, he is at a loss.”

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St. John Chrysostom: “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If any man will to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me’; as much as to say, ‘You say to me, Be it far from you; but I say to you, that not only is it harmful for you to hinder Me from My Passion, but yourself will not be able to be saved unless you suffer and die, and renounce your life always.’”

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St. Gregory the Great: “There are two ways of taking our cross: when the body is afflicted by abstinence, or when the heart is pained by compassion for another. Forasmuch as our very virtues are beset with faults, we must declare that vainglory sometimes attends abstinence of flesh, for the emaciated body and pale countenance betray this high virtue to the praise of the world. Compassion again is sometimes attended by a false affection which is hereby led to be consenting to sin. To shut out these, He adds, ‘Follow me.’”

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St. Augustine: “Our Lord’s command seems hard and heavy, that anyone who wants to follow him must renounce himself. But no command is hard and heavy when it comes from one who helps to carry it out.”

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars •

St. Nicholas von Flüe: “My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you. My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you. My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.

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St. Rose of Lima: “Apart from the Cross, there is no ladder by which we may get to heaven.”

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Gaudium et Spes (22): The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. . . . For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. . . . By suffering for us He not only provided us with an example for our imitation, He blazed a trail, and if we follow it, life and death are made holy and take on a new meaning. . . . Such is the mystery of man, and it is a great one, as seen by believers in the light of Christian revelation. Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they overwhelm us.”

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI •

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“We know that through all the centuries, right up to the present, Christians – while in possession of the right confession – need the Lord to teach every generation anew that his way is not the way of earthly power and glory, but the way of the Cross.” “Peter wanted as Messiah a ‘divine man’ who would fulfill the expectations of the people by imposing his power upon them all: we would also like the Lord to impose his power and transform the world instantly. Jesus presented himself as a ‘human God’, the Servant of God, who turned the crowd's expectations upside-down by taking a path of humility and suffering. This is the great alternative that we must learn over and over again: to give priority to our own expectations, rejecting Jesus, or to accept Jesus in the truth of his mission and set aside all too human expectations.” “Peter, impulsive as he was, did not hesitate to take Jesus aside and rebuke him. Jesus' answer demolished all his false expectations, calling him to conversion and to follow him: ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men.’ It is not for you to show me the way; I take my own way and you should follow me.” “This is the demanding rule of the following of Christ: one must be able, if necessary, to give up the whole world to save the true values, to save the soul, to save the presence of God in the world. And though with difficulty, Peter accepted the invitation and continued his life in the Master's footsteps.”

7. Other Considerations •

The Opening Prayer of this week’s liturgy asks the Lord to “increase our faith.” As the profession of Jesus as the Christ does not come from flesh and blood but from our heavenly Father (cf. last week’s Gospel), so too do we need the Lord to make it possible for us to accept that the road to salvation is the Way of the Cross.

Recommended Resources Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth (New York: Doubleday, 2007), pp. 287-305. Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007) Raymond Brown, Joseph Fitzmyer, Roland Murphy, eds. The New Jerusalem Biblical Commentary (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990).