22nd
Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 3, 2017
I
–The word of the Lord has brought me derision.
R
–My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
II
– Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.
A
– 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.
G –Whoever
wishes to come after me must deny himself.
+ Jesus teaches Peter a very great lesson today in the
gospel passage: suffering is the key to
victory, in general; but in particular, the suffering of the Son of God /
Son of Man is absolutely essential to the victory of life over death, light
over darkness, and love over hatred. Without the death (and subsequent essentially
linked resurrection) of Jesus, there would be no hope for us ever to be
victorious over any damaged or weak areas of our lives.
And so
Jesus tells Peter to get away from him,
as he is trying to dissuade him from going to Jerusalem to die on the cross.
Jesus tells all that if any wants to be a
disciple (not just a follower of nice teachings on earth) but a follower
along the Way leading to eternal reward and life, then sacrifice is required:
one
must lose one’s life (voluntarily lose one’s ego, will and determinism) and lay
it at the feet of Jesus to be transformed into a supernatural identity as a
child of God, a brother or sister of his and an adopted child of an amazing
heavenly Father.
We
cannot accomplish this on our own – a mere human cannot placate God for sin;
only a God/Man can do that; the only God/Man did that, for us! We are so very
grateful for this extreme act of generosity, mercy and love.
The second reading today then
urges us to offer our bodies as a
spiritual sacrifice for God: being
a transformed human person by the renewal
of our minds: by filling them with the
knowledge of God as revealed by Jesus, so that we can love him whom we have come to understand, and serve him because we love him.
Sometimes this will be
difficult, as Jeremiah of the first reading relates. Serving God and being his
spokesman can even cause us to become discouraged and give up in the face of
the power of worldly opinion and pagan philosophies; but, those who have been
baptized, anointed and sent forth in confirmation (and ordination) know they
cannot stop, they cannot just keep the wonderful message of salvation to
themselves: it becomes like a fire
burning inside of them and they must let it out! The test of being in the
right track of grace is just that: being graced, and loved by God,
The bottom line today is this:
we are all thirsting for God; for life; for health and happiness forever – the
way to get it is through the red cross of
suffering to the gold cross of victory!
Our
souls are thirsting for you, O Lord our God.
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