Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 124
First Reading: Jeremiah 20:7-9
You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.
I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
R. (2b) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
for your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Second Reading: Romans 12:1-2
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
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.
Alleluia: cf. Ephesians 1:17-18
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our hearts,
that we may know what is the hope
that belongs to our call.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Matthew 16:21-27
Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
“God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
He turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“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?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”
Foreword
By way of foreword, allow us to present this note about our Lord’s call to deny one’s self for the sake of Jesus, which is another way of saying that the denial of self is for the Kingdom of God. People who heed to our Lord’s call to deny self for the sake of the Kingdom are the happiest people in the world. They swear by the formula which postulates that giving-sharing with others to better their lives equals and results to happiness.
People who give to others, particularly the marginalized, oppressed and neglected, find more fulfillment in life and they are those who deny themselves for the sake of others and the Kingdom of God. This is what our Lord attended to, aside from proclaiming that arrival of the Kingdom, during His public ministry some 2000 years ago and this is what Jesus calls us to for action.
Reflection
Today, allow us to focus on these themes: strength amidst adversity and perseverance in the faith. In the First Reading, the Prophet Jeremiah is complaining to God for designating him herald to his countrymen when the consequence for it was threat to his life and even death of many Jews. For a proud Jew like Jeremiah, seeing the Kingdom of Judah invaded by a foreign power is painful and a sign of God’s declining love for Israel. Israel, particularly the southern kingdom of Judah, where the thrown of David was, will eventually be invaded by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC. Because of the unfaithfulness of Judah, from the Jews to their kings David, Solomon and Rehoboam, God allowed His people to be invaded by a foreign power as punishment and chastisement.
It was not God’s love that diminished. God, who is pure love, will never stop loving mankind. It is man who slips into stupidity because of weakness due to sin. When man fails to trust God, it is a sign that man has trusted himself more than God and that’s when things get really bad.
Jeremiah was probably at that point of giving up on his prophetic mission and that is why we hear him say: “You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me” (Jeremiah 20:7). He’s practically saying that God tricked him into doing something which caused him to look foolish. How many times have we avoided doing God’s will because obeying God makes us look foolish? And when we follow His will and consequently get mocked by others for doing what is right, we act like Jeremiah – blame God for making us obey His Commandments which make us look foolish. The approval of men is more important to us than being holy.
Whenever we have a goal which we desperately want achieved in life, we’ll do everything to meet it and if we make salvation as our main life goal, we should even work at it with our all and get at it until the end of our mortal existence, for our sake and the sake of those we love.
The question is: How important is everlasting life to us? How important is it for us to obey God even in the face of ridicule or even hostility from men who disagree with your faith?
We are not saying that our present existence in this world is not important. In fact, God created life to be good, beautiful and meaningful. It is in living the life that God wants us to live that makes this world beautiful and worth living. It is in doing God’s will that makes life wonderful and admittedly, challenging.
However, doing God’s will includes holding on to the faith even if the world is pressuring us not to. The world seems to be beset with evil but all that can’t overcome the light which is in the world—Jesus, the Light of the World. Our job as baptized Christians is to keep that light burning by making it shine in us so that we can bring it to those who are in darkness.
Like Jeremiah, we too complain when times get tough. Some of us even start to complain at the slightest hint of difficulty. Amazingly, Jeremiah told the Lord God that he was duped by the Lord himself into “accepting” the job of being a prophet. He was probably thinking that if he did a good job at preaching, God wouldn’t allow his nation of Judah to be invaded by the Babylonians because of His infinite mercy. But it was God who used the Babylonians to conquer Judah to render divine judgment on Israel for their transgressions against the Lord (see Jeremiah Chapter 21). It wasn’t just an issue of mercy. It was also an issue about divine justice and insofar as our all-knowing God is concerned, mercy and justice converge into His power and wisdom that they produce the intended result, according to the divine plan. Israel was judged because, like their ancestors before them, they broke the Covenant with God with their sins.
Being mocked for prophesying God’s Word and seeing his country get invaded by a foreign power, Jeremiah was jolted to his core. But it was God’s grace that kept him going and he had the sole privilege of saving the Ark of the Covenant by hiding it in a cave in the desert, away from enemy hands. For a period of about 500 years, the Ark was never found until it resurfaced in the person of our Blessed Mother Mary, who is the Ark of the New Covenant.
Some say, if God seems harsh on you, know for sure that He loves you because the lessons we learn from the difficulties in life should bring us closer to Him who surely provides us with the way out of any difficulty when we call upon His most holy name.
Let us learn from the story of Jeremiah. Obeying God can get difficult but the reward is everlasting life. Never question God’s perfect wisdom. For convenience and expediency, blind obedience to God’s will is required of every Christian.
Gospel: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
We enjoin you to note these words in sequence: DENY, TAKE UP and FOLLOW.
First and foremost, one must will it in his heart to come after Jesus because only Christ can give us the power to deny ourselves and take up our crosses for the sake of others. Those who deny themselves by putting others first or taking up one’s cross for the sake of Jesus is a sign of love for Jesus and others, and love identifies us as disciples of Christ. It is one thing to believe that Jesus is God and Messiah, the one sent by the Father to save mankind. It is another thing to believe, come after Christ and follow Him until the end.
In this world of ‘give-and-take’ or “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine”, one who is contemplating of denying himself and taking up his cross for the sake of others might ask: What’s in it for me?
This appears to be a valid question if the standard you apply is what this world uses, which is the hedonistic and materialistic perspective. But in our Christian faith, the simple answer to this question is everlasting life—the fulfillment of a divine promise for being faithful to Christ, for being steadfast to the causes of good, justice and mercy. In other words, at the end of a life of denying self and taking up one’s cross for the sake of the Kingdom of God is life without end in the company of Jesus Christ. Jesus and a life with Him in Heaven is the reward and nothing comes close to it.
In fact, the way to everlasting life is Jesus Christ himself (John 6:14); a life of abiding in Him who seeks nothing else but to have communion with us. This is the reason why we say that to come after Christ, we need to deny ourselves and take up our crosses because this was what Jesus did to save mankind. He was an innocent victim but He agreed to the crucifixion out of His undying love for mankind. The Crucifixion is the ultimate sign of denying self and taking up one’s cross – literally, dying on the Cross. Ironically, the Cross of death also became the Cross of life because from the Cross, Jesus gave us His life. And for those of us who truly believe that Jesus is Lord, this is the life He is daring us to live. To be true followers and disciples of Christ, we must follow His example of selflessness and love for others. It is in this way that God is glorified.
Denying self and taking up one’s cross is about charity, mercy and kindness. Therefore, one who wishes to follow Christ must learn and live out a life of charity, mercy and kindness. Absent these virtues in living out one’s life, following Christ becomes a mere show, a membership in some organization which aims at social interaction, not one which builds family relations and communion with our Lord.
Looking at today’s Gospel in the backdrop of Jeremiah, the Lord Jesus is daring us to make a leap of faith, one that does not falter, fade or doubt. It is an all-or-nothing deal because what is at stake is everlasting life. Everlasting life is indeed a reward of a lifetime and something really worth dying for.
Second Reading
Saint Paul reminds us about Jesus’ dare to come after Him by denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and following Him. He said: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.”
To put ‘redemptive value’ on our sufferings, the suffering which pleases God, we must offer our ‘bodies as a living sacrifice’. We may have our individual bodies to offer in doing holy things which are pleasing to God but in reality, there is only one body of sacrifice to offer to God because all our holy efforts are united to Him who bridged the gap between God and man, our incarnate Lord Jesus Christ. We are one Church and Body of Christ. Therefore, all our holy deeds are united with Him who is Head of the Church – Jesus.
How can we be righteous? Here’s Saint Paul’s tip from today’s Second Reading: “Do not conform yourselves to this age…” To be pleasing to God, one must act based on truth. By “truth” we mean conformity to the teaching of Jesus and the Church. In other words, we must conform not to what this world says but to the Word of God.
Conformity to this age is seeking acceptance from men instead of doing God’s will even if it goes against the norms and wishes of men. If our conformity is geared towards acceptance from or by people who we perceive as important, even if what the principles they espouse are against Christian morality and the teachings of the Church, then St. Paul’s caution was true all along—it was true before and still true today. Should we to be pleasing to people just to find acceptance in their group over being holy and pleasing to God? The answer to this question is a no-brainer.
Lastly, St. Paul says: “…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.
It is only by having the mind of Christ in us that we can be transformed like Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This does not happen overnight. It is a lifetime of prayer so that whatever we do and say is infused with holiness and redemptive value. This is what daily conversion is all about – to persevere until the end with Jesus by our side, and in the end we find that Jesus is also our destination and reward of everlasting life.
A blessed Sunday to everyone.
– Gospel reflection by Kuya Rommel Cecilio of SLRP Bible Apostolate Ministry