Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Jer 20.7-9;  
Rom 12.1-2;  
Mt 16.21-27

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A TRUE DISCIPLE OF CHRIST?

Last week, Jesus said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah…You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” Today we hear Christ saying to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan.”  Why the change?  What has happened? Has the devil come upon Simon or put him in bondage? In Last week’s episode, Peter recognized Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah – but he did not really know what this meant. That was why Jesus said that it was God the Father through his faith that he received the revelation.  Today, we hear Our Lord explaining the reality of what it was to be Christ: The Bible tells us that, “From that time forward, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the leaders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’  This was not what Peter wanted to hear. He did not like to imagine that his Master must suffer and die.  He wanted Him to be a great king, effortlessly triumphant, irresistibly powerful against their enemy.

In thinking like this, we reverse the correct order of things. We try to make God in our own image.  When we do this, we become liable to the same condemnation that Peter received: “Get behind me, Satan! You are not on the side of God, but of men.”  Strong words, but well deserved, because Peter was imitating the sin of Satan, opposing his will to that of his Creator. This is always the great temptation the Evil One lays before us, to put our own wills first, our own wishes above all else.

Are we not sometimes guilty of the same charge to feel that by our selfish gains we want to put our plans before God’s own? After rebuking Peter for his folly, the Lord teaches His disciples the true way to happiness, in words which are so familiar that perhaps we miss their full impact: “If any one would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

What we must do is look to God.  God is calling us to something so much richer and so much more fulfilling than anything that Satan can offer on this earth. Our real life is still to come.  So we must use this life to prepare for the next.  And what we must do to find eternal life is in one sense so very simple.  We must be ready to agree with Saint Paul that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. We must be prepared to say to God, day after day in the words of our Lord himself taught us, “Yes Lord, You do know best.  Let your will be done.”

Fr Joseph Osho