[Jeremiah felt overwhelmed by the sheer burden of his task as prophet and tells God that in no uncertain terms: “you are strong than I am; you duped me Lord, and now I am a laughingstock.” If genuine prayer is a lifting up of the heart and mind to God, then Jeremiah’s prayer is real genuine stuff!]
You have seduced me, Lord, and I have let myself be seduced;
you have overpowered me: you were the stronger.
I am a daily laughing-stock, everybody’s butt.
Each time I speak the word, I have to howl and proclaim: Violence and ruin!
The word of the Lord has meant for me insult, derision, all day long.
I used to say, I will not think about him, I will not speak in his name any more.
Then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones.
The effort to restrain it wearied me, I could not bear it.
[This begins the moral instruction section of Paul’s letter. It begins by reminding us that all our life should be worship , seeking what God wants.]
Think of God's mercy, my brothers, and worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God. Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.
[Peter, the Rock, is the first to call Jesus “Messiah” (last week’s gospel). He is also the first to misunderstand what this discovery means, and what kind of Messiah Jesus is. Can you and I accept the cross… when it becomes a reality for us?]
Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. 'Heaven preserve you, Lord,' he said. 'This must not happen to you.' But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God's way but man's.'
Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?
'For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour.'
A
1. What word or phrase stands out for you? Why?
2. With whom in the readings do you most identify? Why
3. Do you feel attracted to anything in today�s readings? Do you feel
resistant to anything? Do you know why?
4. In what way do these readings affirm you?
5. In what way do these readings challenge you?
6. What can you do to respond to this challenge?
B
1.Do any of the readings, passages relate to your life, speak to you? How?
2.What does it mean to deny yourself? To take up your cross? To follow Christ?
3.What is your cross??
4.Tell of an experience when God’s ways did not meet your expectations.
5.“Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind” (Middle reading) – What difficulties do you have, pressures you feel under, living as a Christian in today’s world?
6.For Jeremiah (reading 1): “The word of the Lord has meant for me insult, derision, all day long.” What are the ups and downs you feel in following Christ?
"The maxim of illusory religion runs like this: 'fear not: trust in God and he will see that none of these things will happen to you.' This is the way St. Peter thought, and the way we do at times. The maxim of real religion on the contrary is: 'Fear not: the things that you are afraid of are quite likely to happen to you, but they are nothing to be afraid of.'
After the grand promises given to Peter in last week’s gospel [Mt. 16:16-20], Jesus points his disciples to Jerusalem, where he will suffer greatly and ultimately be crucified. Peter, to whom God revealed that Jesus was Messiah, “rebukes” Jesus (a strong word, often, when Jesus “rebukes” a demon), saying: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” In language used against no other disciple, Jesus calls Peter Satan (in the original sense of “adversary” rather than “demon”) and says that he is an “obstacle.” This is a weak translation of the Greek skandalon (lit. “snare,” often used with the word “stone”), which trips persons or causes them to fall). What a transformation from the rock on which Jesus will build his church!
The next section captures the theme of the liturgy: the cost of hearing and following God’s word. Jeremiah, who was hated and persecuted by the king and other prophets, laments his very call. God has “duped” him (a word often used of sexual seduction), and he muses that he will no more mention God or speak in God’s name. Yet he cannot abandon his prophetic mission, which is a fire burning in his heart, imprisoned in his bones. This burning fire will only fuel more hatred and suffering.
All Jesus’ followers are summoned to deny themselves and to be ready to follow Jesus by taking up their cross, “for whoever wishes to save his [or her] life, will lose it, but whoever loses his [or her] life for my sake will find it.” Taking the cross and denying one’s self captures the paradoxical ethics of Matthew’s Gospel. The “life” promised to disciples is the true life embodied and taught by Jesus: rejection of power when offered all the kingdoms of the world; a paradoxical identification with the poor, the mourners, the peacemakers and those who seek justice; forgiveness of enemies, quiet and constant prayer to a loving Father, inner peace amid threats and suffering—all these are thinking as God thinks.
“Denying one’s self” is more profound than daily acts of “mortification.” It means displacing one’s self from the centre while looking to the true as represented / shown by Jesus’ teaching. The self that is lost according to Jesus’ vision is the independent autonomous individual. The self found is true life in a community of brothers and sisters who take up the challenge of discipleship by speaking and living from that fire that burns within their hearts. Such discipleship embodies a life of “costly grace,” as described by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who carried his cross to death in opposing Nazism. He describes costly grace as “the Gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for...such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs him his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.” Peter, firm rock and stumbling stone, learned this only after he failed and even denied Jesus.
Nobody wants to suffer. Every living being cringes from pain. It is almost as if we have within us a driving force to run away from it. And then we come across readings like today’s that admonish us “to offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice.” They seem to call us to act against our very nature. In the past, such passages bolstered a spirituality that claimed, “The more severe the physical deprivation the greater will be the spiritual benefits.” In the recent past, we have come to realize that such notions fail to grasp the goodness of our corporeality, and they misunderstand the biblical injunction.
Today’s readings exhort us to embrace God’s invitation to intimacy regardless of the cost; they do not urge us simply to suffering in itself. The touching depiction of Jeremiah makes this clear. He did not want to be a prophet in the first place (Jer 1:6). He acquiesced, only to find that his words, which were really God’s words, would not be heeded. The personal derision and humiliation that he endured prompted him to resolve never again to speak out. But the word of God within him would not be stilled. Like a burning fire within him, it flared out. Jeremiah did not seek suffering. It was the price he was forced to pay for being faithful to his mission. He suffered because his compatriots were hard-hearted and refused to accept God’s message.
In the Gospel, the disciples are called to follow Jesus. Like others who came to see him, they are inflamed by his words and captivated by his miraculous powers. In today’s reading, Jesus shows them the other side of what it means to be a disciple: ‘Deny yourself; take up your cross and follow me.’ Here too the issue is fidelity to one’s call, not suffering in itself. The disciples are told that if they want to follow Jesus, they must be willing to accept the same kind of rejection that he was enduring and pay the price that he was willing to pay.
Now we are able to understand Paul’s admonition “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.” Suffering or sacrifice might be required of us as we respond faithfully to our call as disciples. This should not surprise us, because sacrifice is often the price we pay for fidelity to our calling in life. Parents know this quite well. Their willingness to give their lives for their children can be like fire burning in their hearts. This is true about any kind of commitment. Our calling does not always come from the outside. Sometimes God places a desire that burns from deep within one’s heart.
As we strive to respond faithfully to our calling, Paul’s words take on profound meaning: “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.”
• Ask God for the grace that leads you to know your true self.
• When the prospect of suffering looms, think of Jesus, who had “to suffer greatly.”
• Pray about ways by which your parish or community may strive to resolve conflict.