Twenty-second
Sunday of Ordinary Time (A) [Mt 16:21-27]
03.09.2023
Teaching about Cross, Self-denial and Following Christ
1. Theme in brief
Conditions for Christian
discipleship
2. Focus Statement
Christian discipleship involves obedience to three
conditions laid by Christ: self-denial, taking up our daily crosses and
following him by sharing his suffering.
3. Explanation of the text
In today’s gospel text Jesus explains to his disciples that his mission involves suffering and death at the hands of elders, chief priests and scribes (16:21). [These three groups make up the Sanhedrin – the supreme council of Judaism.] He makes it clear to them that he is not a Messiah of worldly power and glory, but one who suffers and dies to fulfil his Father’s mission. That is why he says that he “must go to Jerusalem” to “undergo great suffering” (16:21) because running away from Jerusalem will go totally against his God-given mission to save the world through suffering and death.
Although Peter had made a great confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of the living God as we heard in last Sunday’s gospel (16:16), Peter’s notion of Christ’s messiahship had to be further purified. He still had the notion of a king of power and glory endowed with divine powers to deliver Israel from its enemies and establish a prosperous kingdom on earth. The notion of a suffering and dying messiah was outside his way of thinking; in fact a scandal to his mind. How could a dead messiah save anybody? That is why Peter tried to block Jesus from the way of the cross. His way of thinking was that God would not allow such a thing to happen to his Son. He took Jesus aside and privately admonished him saying: “God forbid it” (16:22). But the fact is that it was not God who was forbidding; it was he who was forbidding Jesus to do God’s will.
When Peter advised Jesus to avoid suffering or cross, Jesus called him a Satan which means a tempter, a deceiver or an enemy of God’s purpose. What a contrast – Peter who was called “Rock” by Jesus earlier became a Satan after a while; one who was the holder of the keys of the Kingdom of heaven became a stumbling block (compare 16:18-19 with 16:23). He was identified with the same evil force (Satan) which was tempting Jesus in the wilderness after his baptism. Jesus used similar words to rebuke Peter here (“Get behind me, Satan,” in 16:23) which he used to renounce the devil during his temptations – “Away with you, Satan” (4:10). At that time also Satan was tempting Jesus to divert his mind from a single-minded devotion to God’s will and to lure him to a comfortable or cosy path devoid of cross. In the present text, Peter is shown to take the place of that Satan who was luring Jesus to a path away from suffering and the cross. What was thinking was purely a human way of thinking and not God’s way of thinking (16:23). He advised Jesus to avoid suffering by all means.
Jesus further makes it clear that those who, like Peter, confess him as the Messiah and wish to be his disciples should be willing to do so under any conditions. Here he mentions three conditions: (1) self-denial, i.e. saying ‘no’ to self and ‘yes’ to God or forgetting oneself and putting God at the centre; (2) taking up the cross which is a symbol of suffering, sacrifice and humiliation(16:24); and (3) following him, i.e. willingness to walk in his footsteps or living as he lived. These conditions are nothing but an invitation given to the disciple to share the Master’s fate.
Jesus further declares that the precious life given to us by God is not meant for safe keeping or to play it safe all the time. Only when we spend ourselves in love, service and welfare we gain the joy and worth of life (16:25). We may try to take all the precautions to preserve life and refuse to take any risk. But life is so fragile that we may lose it at any time, after death we may be forgotten soon. The real path to inner freedom and happiness is not to “gain the whole world,” that is, acquiring all the wealth of the world but to allow the self to die. It also means allowing God to control our lives by submitting our will to him (16:25-26). Suppose a person possesses the wealth and power of the whole world and finally finds no meaning in life or finds that life is not worth living, will his wealth help him get back that lost meaning? Such a person gains the world, but loses his/her life (16:26).
4. Application to life
In today’s gospel text Jesus makes it clear to his disciples that confessing him as the messiah involves a participation in his suffering and humiliating death. It also involves a vigorous battle against one’s own selfish desires, ambitions for power and prestige, and a willingness to follow the path of suffering, sacrifice, humiliation and rejection. As it is explained above, he places the following three conditions before anybody who wishes to become his follower:
(1) To deny oneself: Denying oneself involves sacrificing one’s own interests for the welfare of others. Today Jesus admonishes each one of us to say ‘no’ to a life that is centred on oneself, one’s own selfish interests, one’s own materialistic gains and pleasures, one’s own glory, name and fame; and say ‘yes’ to a life centred on God and his Kingdom.
(2) To take up one’s cross: Cross is a symbol of suffering, self-denial, sacrifice and humiliation. There are two types of crosses – the ones we get without asking (like sickness, natural calamities, death etc.); and the ones we embrace knowingly and willingly motivated by love for others as taught by Christ. The latter ones come to us when we do some voluntary service for the needy. When we render such voluntary service to our society or Church, sometimes we may have to face personal inconveniences, humiliation, loss of time, criticism, opposition, rejection, etc. The question is whether we embrace these crosses and prove to be faithful disciples of the Lord, or become unfaithful by avoiding them. Anyway, quite often the price we have to pay for our faithfulness to Christ is the cross.
(3) To follow him: It means to be willing imitate his example of doing deeds of mercy for the needy, making sacrifices for such acts, forgiving our offenders without limit and conditions, sharing our resources with the needy, overcoming evil with good, walking an extra mile, living honestly when everybody else follows dishonest ways, etc. Can anybody do these things without denying oneself and feeling the pain of sacrifices and renunciation of one’s own ego? All these matters demand renunciation of self and accompany the shadow of the cross along with them. Therefore, following Jesus’ footsteps is closely connected with the first two conditions: self-denial and carrying one’s cross.
If we are Christ’s true disciples, we must be convinced that a life without crosses, that is, suffering and sacrifice is not his way. There is a temptation in all of us to escape not only from our personal crosses but also advise those who are dear to us not to carry them, as Peter was trying to do for Jesus. He was trying to impose his own vision of life on Jesus – a vision of life without a cross. Today’s gospel challenges us to examine whether heart of hearts we dream of a comfortable Christianity that conforms well to the standards of the world; whether we have a desire for “cheap grace” without paying any price (that is, without making sacrifices); and whether we are trying to abandon the cross of Christ. Heart of hearts there is a desire in many of us to follow a ‘cross-less’ Jesus, a ‘sweet Jesus’ or a ‘sugar-coated’ Jesus. If we were allowed to follow Jesus selectively, how happy we would have been to select the image of Baby Jesus in the manger of Bethlehem, of the prodigal son getting pardon for all his sins, of Jesus rescuing his disciples from the deadly storm with his miraculous power; and abandon Jesus who asks us to forgive our bitterest enemies and tells us to take up our heavy crosses and follow him. In our mission work too we are tempted to embrace only projects, budget, fund-raising, membership rolls, targets, etc., instead of embracing our daily crosses and serving the needy.
When Peter rebukes Jesus, he in turn rebukes Peter in the strongest language possible: “Get behind me, Satan,” (16:23), because like Satan he acts as a deceiver. He tries to tempt Jesus to deviate from divinely ordained mission to attain glory through the way of the cross. Instead of following Jesus as a disciple, he wants that Jesus should follow him or his way of thinking. Jesus rebukes Peter sternly saying that he should get behind him and follow him, instead of asking the Master to follow the disciple. The disciples are called not to be mere witnesses and preachers of Jesus’ suffering but actually live the life of suffering occasionally in their own bodies for his cause. Today, the word “Satan” could mean any force including well-meaning friends/companions who seek to draw us away from the path of sacrifice and self-denial taught by Christ and pull us towards world’s path of working purely for self-interest and self-glory. Those whom we love may advise us to avoid the crosses, as Peter advised Jesus. On the other hand, when our family members and friends have to take a firm stand on a principle, like Peter, we too might advice them: “God forbid it” (16:22), that is, God does not demand such a hard thing from you. Actually speaking, it is not God who forbids; we ourselves forbid a hard decision in God’s name. On the one hand, Jesus’ thoughts of a suffering messiah were a stumbling block (a scandal) for Peter and his companions to accept; on the other hand, Peter himself was a “stumbling block” on the path of Jesus (16:23). Similarly, we become a stumbling block for others to follow Jesus closely, or others become a stumbling block for us.
The
challenge of Christ to take up our daily crosses can take newer and newer forms
for each one of us individually and also for the Church as a whole. Personally
for each one of us, crosses may mean not only sufferings which come from
sickness, calamites and death, but also humiliation we may have to face from our
opponents and critics or detractors. We are called to take up the crosses of
humiliation when we become a laughing stock for standing firm on pro-life
issues or want to purify the society from social evils; when we
face intimidation for telling the truth; when we become victims of
misunderstanding/ false accusation/ unjust or partial treatment at home or in
workplaces, etc. Crosses also include all the sacrifices we make to go beyond
our selfish boundaries
as we die to our selfish world and rise to a life lived for our others.
The Church as a whole also carries the crosses of rejection, hatred, mocking, false propaganda and outright persecution in various parts of the world whenever she fulfils her prophetic role by standing against corruption, injustices and violation of human rights, or for standing firm on certain moral principles (on issues such as euthanasia, abortion, gay marriages, homosexuality). The gospel-message of today invites us to identify our present crosses and challenges us to take them up, if we wish to remain as faithful disciples of Jesus. To take up or not to take up our crosses; to embrace our crosses or avoid them is the question. Our discipleship depends on how we answer this question.
Further, Christ’s teaching about losing and finding life in today’s gospel, challenges us to make a choice between one of the two directions to life: (1) the easy one which consists of holding on to life at any cost, or living life exclusively for oneself, for one’s own gains and pleasures; and (2) the hard one which consists of spending one’s life, renouncing one’s own security and comfort for the good of others, or seeking welfare of others instead of exclusively one’s own. The more we hold on to life for our own selfish gains, the more we will slip into the slavery of always wanting more and more.
Today’s gospel invites us not to live a wasted life by refusing to spend it for others’ welfare. A wasted life is that which is fully preoccupied with itself, unwilling to spend life for love of others. Let us think of the precious time we have wasted, the love we have failed to give to those who needed it, the duties we have neglected, the responsibilities we evaded, the compassion we failed to show, the powers we failed to use for the good of others, etc. Can the possessions of the whole world make up the loss resulting from a wasted life? What is the use of just existing and not living our lives with a purpose? Life is not given to us for safe keeping but for losing or spending it. We find tremendous joy of satisfaction and fulfilment when we see others gaining life because of our losing it for their sake. What does it profit if we have all the facilities of modern world, but lack real peace and inner joy?
5. Response to God's Word
Like Peter, do we want God to follow our way of thinking? Which are the crosses we try to avoid? Can we identify those crosses we embrace knowingly and willingly motivated by love and Christ’s teachings? For the service of our society or to do good to others, do we face personal inconveniences, humiliation, loss of time, criticism, opposition and rejection? Do we advise those who are dear to us not to avoid crosses? Are we guilty of living a wasted life by refusing to spend it generously out of love for others?
6. A prayer
Lord Jesus, make me your faithful disciple by embracing my daily crosses. I say ‘no’ to my self and say ‘yes’ to your way of sacrifice. Grant that I may follow you everyday by renouncing my self and walking in your footsteps up to the way of the cross. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment