Take Up Your Cross. Sunday Breakfast with the Word 22nd Sunday Year A

Sunday Breakfast 22nd Sunday In Ordinary Time of The Year A

 

Jeremiah 20:7-9,  Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 16:21-27

 

 

 

A man formed the habit of doing early morning walk and jogging along a Seminary School. There was no morning that you would come out without seeing him in his usual exercise.

 

One day one of the seminarians who admired his tenacity, determination, and perseverance in doing this almost every day approached him and asked him the reason he does this without taking a break. This particular exercise was like his daily food.

 

The middle-aged man smiled at the seminarian and said “my brother without this, I may die”. The seminarian could not understand comparing such exercise with life and death and went on to ask him why he made such a statement: the man further replied that the sole reason was because of his health.

 

A doctor advised him to do early morning exercise at least for six months without stopping if he sincerely loves his life.

 

The man said, “before I do not do this but because of what I want to achieve, I have to, it has become part of my daily routine, I now do it with joy”.

 

This man denied himself early morning rest for the sake of his health. This is also like being a true disciple of Jesus. To be a true follower of Jesus is to deny ourselves what we want, what our body wants, and what the world wants and then take up what God wants.

 

The Gain in the Midst of Pain

 

In 1894, Orison Swett Marden the progenitor of success magazine thought his whole life had ended when his hotel gutted fire. This great motivator before this fire incident took time and wrote a beautiful classic full of wisdom which he entitled “pushing to the front”.

 

Towards the finishing point of this book, the hotel caught fire, and the whole manuscript was burnt and everything went down to flames.

 

This devastated him much but remembering that He has something to achieve, he took the pains again and went into a dirty chamber with little comfort and rewrote the book from the scratch. This great classic exerted a powerful influence on America. Till today people are searching to read the book “pushing to the front”.

 

Marden sacrificed his comfort to write a book amidst the pains and depression that have encircled him. In the midst of suffering, many great heroes have been born. Anyone who truly wants to become somebody or achieve something must have so many things to sacrifice to reach there. To be a disciple of Jesus also is to accept our daily sacrifices and offer them for the love we have for God.

 

Jeremiah’s Experience

 

To fully understand Jeremiah’s situation, we have to read from the beginning of today’s chapter. The people at his time became so hardened to God’s law and deviated from Him which prompted God to send Jeremiah to proclaim that the nation of Judah would suffer famine, conquest and be led into captivity to a pagan and foreign land (Jeremiah 10, 11).

 

While Jeremiah was busy prophesying the destruction that is going to befall the people, other prophets were prophesying peace. Jeremiah was seen as an object of mockery.

Today, he approached the sanctuary in the city of Topheth and continued to prophesy in the temple that God is going to bring disaster to the city.

 

Unhappy with Jeremiah’s message, A priest known as Pashur who is a temple official in Jerusalem, had Jeremiah beaten and put him in the stocks for a day. After this, Jeremiah lamented the travails and mockery which speaking God’s word have caused him.

 

 

2. Jeremiah accused God of “persuading him and making him an object of mockery.” By using the word deceived, persuaded, or seduced  Jeremiah was implicitly saying that it was God who persuaded him with promises against his will. Like Jeremiah, this is how we also complain when it looks as if God has taken his back on us.

 

3. Jeremiah became angry because it looks as if all his predictions and prophecies were not coming forth and that was why the people were making fun of him. But despite Jeremiah’s travails, God did not fail in His promises to Jeremiah when he called him.

 

In His words, God said ‘They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” (Jeremiah 1:19) and Jeremiah indeed prevailed.

 

God may allow us to pass through some challenges but there is always victory at the end. The challenges and difficulties are always part of the journey. Our aim then should be on the goal, not the challenges.

 

3. Jeremiah’s lamentation is a sign that there were times Jeremiah became an object of fun and mockery because of God’s word.

 

There were times he was insulted and persecuted. There were also times he wanted to give up. In the first reading he says “I would say to myself, ‘I will not think about Him, I will not speak in his name anymore,”  but despite these what kept Jeremiah going was that inner desire to preach the word.

 

 

4. If we are truly in love with God and focused on our goal, despite the battle within and around us, we will always come to victory.

 

In God’s promises to Jeremiah, it was understood that the troubles were also part of his calling. But the desire for God and his word led him all through the travails.

 

This is why Jesus puts it thus that “If anyone desires to follow me”. To be a follower of Jesus must be a decision that comes from the heart. This burning desire to work for God will always help us to conquer the challenges ahead.

 

Peter’s Confrontation

 

The gospel of today follows from that of Sunday. Jesus had just commended Peter for answering well in proclaiming him as the Messiah.

 

When Jesus began to explain the suffering He is to undergo in the hands of authorities, “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him” This is an affirmation that though Peter knows that Jesus is the Messiah but he did not yet fully understand the mission of the Messiah.

 

This puzzle also caught up with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. One of them told Jesus that they had hoped that Jesus was the one who was going to redeem Israel. (Luke 24;13-35) but were disappointed how he was handed down to be crucified.

 

Good knowledge of the political nature of that time will help us to understand what truly pushed Peter to react.

 

The Jews at this time were under political bondage in the hands of the Romans, so they have been waiting for the Messiah whom God will send to make Israel a great nation again. How can such a messiah come now to tell them that he would suffer? For Peter this is unacceptable.

 

Christianity is Not One-Sided

 

Peter may have thought that being a follower of Jesus is only for glory, favour, upliftment, salvation, and breakthrough.

 

In Peter, there is nothing like cross, suffering, pain, persecution, etc. Just like Peter, many today see Christianity only in the light of the breakthrough, favour, and upliftment, for us, suffering is never our portion. This is why we have many crusades and programs, cross-over nights, where only blessing, salvation, glory are promised and preached to the attendants.

 

The truth is that God in His wisdom answers prayers in ways that we do not understand, just like the Jews have been praying for a Messiah and the Messiah came in a way they did not understand, this is how God has been answering most of our prayers but in ways, we do not understand. In God, both cross and glory walk hand in glove. In him, both cross and crown are connected, we can never do without the two.

 

 

Like Peter

 

Just like Peter took Jesus aside and began to reproach him, “Never, Lord! No, this must never happen to you” but did not know that it was part of the destiny of the Messiah, is how those who think that Christianity has nothing to do with the cross will approach us in times of suffering and try to convince us that what we are going through is not part of our destiny, it must be from the devil.

 

Many might then begin to propose to you where they want to take you for solutions to your problems. In seeking solutions, many have put their hands into what they could not come out of it today.

 

Many have joined groups that promised them fast wealth and have led them into occultic activities which under normal circumstances, they would not have.

 

The Rebuke

 

Jesus’ rebuke of Peter is a sign that Jesus sees Peter as a stumbling block and temptation. Jesus is also pointing to Peter that it is not his will that will happen but the will of God. By this action, Jesus is invariably teaching us that in everything we do, the will of God should reign supreme.

 

Secondly, we should choose to do what God wants not what we want, hence our Lord is directing us on how we should react when people try to mislead us at the time of difficulties and suffering.

 

2. Jesus told Peter to get behind him, hence showing him his true position. The disciple should not be in front of the master but behind the master and following the master.

 

When Peter took Jesus aside to rebuke him, Peter went in front of the lord to correct him, it shows that Peter then was out of his position. The master should take the lead and we follow.

 

3. This is also a sign that everyone has his own path to follow. Any path that God has given us we should accept and follow it with faith and joy.

 

If Anyone Desires to Follow Me

 

1. At this point, Jesus now faces his disciples and says: “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

 

To be a disciple of Jesus is not by force or pressure, there should be that inborn desire to be his true disciple.

 

This decision must come from the heart. To make this decision is to put the self not at the forefront but behind the master.

 

We can then be willing to offer our daily crosses as a sacrifice and can never be affected by them because within our hearts there is this burning desire for the things of God. This is what led Jeremiah through his predicaments.

 

2. The love of Jesus should supersede the love of the self. If we can love Jesus more than we love ourselves, we can then put the body and its desires to the check.

 

The desires of the body at this point will not be the driving force behind our actions but the desire to make God happy with the type of life we live.

 

Because of God, we can then be willing to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God; As Paul said in the second reading.

 

This type of life then becomes worship because everything we do at this point, gives glory to God.

 

3. To follow Jesus is to freely and willingly accept our crosses and carry them with joy. The cross is that, under normal circumstances, one would not like to take it upon his life.

 

It is that experience that brings pain and discomfort. But because of the desire to achieve eternal life, one carries them with Joy, like the apostles who rejoiced for suffering for Christ ( Acts 5:41). When we do this, no hard situation will make us lose faith in God again.

 

 

Conclusion

1. Sometimes when we pray and it did not happen the way we want, we blame God and lose faith. Some will stop going to church and some will say that God hates them. To be truly a disciple of Jesus is to accept the good and the bad.

 

We become like the family of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who stayed many years without a child yet, they did not complain and God rewarded them at last.

 

We become like Mary who would have used her life to pursue many professions but she accepted to do the will of God.

 

We become like the apostles who left their personal professions and put the gospel at the forefront, they passed through sufferings and persecutions and yet did not give up.

 

Anyone who gives up in the midst of suffering is never a Christian, for there is no Christianity without a cross. To be a Christian is not only on the part of breakthrough, favour, and upliftment.

 

 

2. In the world, many will go to any extreme to achieve their selfish desires. In the world, many do not care about their souls.

 

What we care about is how to replenish and refreshen the body, yet at the end of our lives, the body we try to replenish goes into extinction.

 

In the Gospel, Jesus asks “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?” but man does not care about eternal life, all his hope is life now.

 

Can we pause and ask ourselves ‘what if we die without the state of grace, what would be my fate?

 

 

3. Today many hate suffering, pains, and detest sacrifice, but without these, there will be no progress, there will be no success, and there will be no growth.

 

Many great discoveries were carried under intensive research and work. We cannot get everything on the platter of gold.

 

Without pain, there is no gain, before Easter Sunday, we have Good Friday, without crucifixion and death, there will be no resurrection.

 

There are challenges lying everywhere we are, to get to where we want to be. Do not run away when you meet challenges, they may be the only thing you need to get to your successful destination.

 

So stay strong and inspired, remain faithful, and be blessed. There is always light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Fr Sanctus Mario