Sunday, August 31, 2008 St. Clement’s Catholic Church
Saratoga Springs, NY
Jeremiah 20: 7 – 9
Psalm 63: 2, 3 – 4, 5 – 6, 8 – 9
Romans 12: 1 – 2
Matthew 16: 21 – 27
Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15) To which Peter replies: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” (Matthew 16:16) Jesus then tells Peter that he is Blessed, that no mere man has revealed this to Peter but God himself has enlightened him. No, I am not going to repeat the homily from last week but in order to truly grasp our Gospel for today we have to remember what we read last week. The scene from today’s Gospel follows directly from what we read last week in Matthew. Today, Jesus is explaining to his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem in order to suffer and die. To which Peter responds, “God forbid it my Lord.” (Matthew 16:22) That is followed by Jesus’ response to Peter, “Get behind me Satan.” (Matthew 16:23) How do we go from Peter being called Blessed to being called Satan? This is a large jump in rather a short time. This exchange is what we need to reflect upon today.
There is a story that after a preacher died and went to heaven; he noticed that a New York cabdriver had been given a higher place than he had. "I don't understand," he complained to St. Peter. "I devoted my entire life to my congregation." "Our policy is to reward results," explained St. Peter. "Now what happened, Reverend, whenever you gave a sermon?" The minister admitted that some in the congregation fell asleep. "Exactly," said St. Peter. "And when people rode in this man's taxi, they not only stayed awake, they prayed."
Results … that is what the Gospel is asking us to focus in on today. In our American society we have learned that results are to be valued. We go to work to get the promotion, to get the bonus, to get the job done. We need to produce results or else we lose our job. Children are preparing to return to school and when they do they are encouraged to get good grades, to achieve the A, to obtain a sold GPA. From our earliest years we are told that we need to succeed in life, we need to get ahead. This is the message that is a constant in our American society. Yet Jesus tells us that things have to be different. If we truly want to be his follower our results are not about who has the most money at the end of our lives but it is important on how we lived our lives. What we have done in our career is not as important as how much we have loved others.
Peter calls Jesus the Christ, the Messiah and has an idea of what it means for Jesus to be called these titles. He is to be treated like royalty, like a King. All people are to worship him and bow down before him. So, when Jesus begins to tell his disciples that he has to go up to Jerusalem to suffer and die, Peter tells him he has it all wrong. Then just a few verses after Jesus calls Peter blessed he then calls him Satan. To be the Messiah means to suffer, to deny himself, to pick up his cross. The Messiah is to give his life for the sake of the world and this is not exactly what Peter had in mind.
For us who profess to be followers of Christ, Christians, means that we must follow in his footsteps. We are called to deny our very selves. That means that we must place the interest of others before our own interests. We must deny ourselves to love others. We all have crosses in our lives and our Lord is telling us that whatever crosses we might have we need to carry them, we need to embrace them. But we do not carry them alone; the one who asks us to carry our cross is there to help us.
There is a story told by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Once upon a time there was a fire in a small town. The fire brigade rushed to the scene, but the firemen were unable to get through to the burning building. The problem was the crowd of people who had gathered not to watch but to help put out the fire. They all knew the fire chief well - their children had climbed over his fire engines during excursions to the fire station, and the friendliness of the fire chief was legendary. So when a fire broke out the people rushed out to help their beloved fire chief.
Unfortunately the townsfolk were seeking to extinguish this raging inferno with water pistols! They'd all stand there, from time to time squirting their pistol into the fire while making casual conversation.
The fire chief couldn't contain himself. He started screaming at the townsfolk. "What do you think you're doing? What on earth do you think you're going to achieve with those water pistols?!"
The people realized the urgency of the situation. How they wanted to help the fire chief. So they started squirting more. "Come on" they encouraged each other; "We can all do better, can't we?" Squirt, squirt, squirt, squirt.
Exasperated the fire chief yells again. "Get out of here. You’re achieving nothing except hindering us from doing what needs to be done. We need firemen who are ready to give everything they've got to put out this fire, people willing even to lay their lives on the line. This is not the place for token contributions!"
Kierkegaard tells the story to urging us to realize that discipleship to Christ means much more than token levels of support to the church and Good's mission in the world. It calls for wholehearted and total life commitment
Christianity demands a full commitment on our part. Christ asks us to give 110%. The message of today’s Gospel may seem to be tough, because it is – there is no way that I can sugarcoat it. Denying ourselves, carrying our cross is not the things we praise in today’s society. However, they are the things our Lord asks us to do. Christ is not looking for people to give token contributions but is looking for people who are ready to lay it all on the line.
A hard message but there are some things to help us in trying to live out this message. First is what we will receive in a few moments. We gather today to receive the Body and Blood of our Savior who not only asks us to live this message but comes to us to give us the strength we need to do so. He also did not just preach these words he lived them. Secondly, we come together in this Church and there are people sitting besides us who are trying to live this message as well. The people next to you are striving to live the words of Christ just as you are. Together with one another we can offer the support we need to live this message. Left alone it would be impossible, with the support of others it becomes a possibility.
The final point I would like to make in offering help to live the message of carrying our cross lies in the lovely lady, Mary. She is the first and best disciple because she lived the message of denying herself and carrying her cross. She was a woman who had to leave her hometown to delivery her first born in a distant town. She flees with her husband and new born son to a foreign country because King Herod was trying to kill them. She stays at the foot of the cross and feels the pain as her innocent son dies a terrible death. Throughout her life, not just at the Annunciation, Mary continually said: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)
May the Lord strengthen us in the Eucharist we receive. May we have the support of one another in living as Christian disciples. May the inspiration of Mary always be with us to encourage us. AMEN!
No comments:
Post a Comment