Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time


22 OTA.11; Jer 20:7-9; Rom 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. Matthew 16:23
How does God think?
Perhaps we need to rethink our lives & values.
Suffering can have value?… How ridiculous is that! ...Yet, it has been said:
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls.
Edwin Hubbel Chaplin
Peter & Jeremiah, in today’s readings, feel misled by none other than God, steered in the wrong direction by divine intention!  They’ve ended up some place they had no intention of going.  Jeremiah literally screams…
You duped me O Lord! How often have we felt that one!
And today Peter cannot comprehend this “suffering messiah” – he rebukes Jesus, God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you. Jesus, Get behind me Satan! You are as obstacle to me.”  What is happening here?   If you want life with God – lose it for others!  Again the echo in our minds & souls is: You are thinking not as God does,
but as human beings do. .
Jesus knew that he would be killed.  He even called his crucifixion his hour of triumph.  To us, that sounds like dark humor.  We know Jesus was under surveillance most his life; he went from celebrity to pariah in a year; his friends abandoned him when things got rough; his own religious leaders handed him over to the hated Roman occupation force who crucified him between two criminals.  Surely this was the triumph of evil.   
Jesus thought otherwise.
And we must believe that he is right.  Otherwise, we are not Christians. Just who is this person who thought that his execution was his triumphant hour?  If all he is, is a good person, then his death was a clear defeat.  But we also recognize him as the divine Son of God, which puts an entirely different spin on his human experience.  Jesus is essentially the Word of God.  That Word is how God thinks out loud, speaks, & expresses genuine reality.  

Now… Can you imagine being in Peter’s position?  Jesus just called you the rock on which he would build his church, and then, seconds later, he is chastising you and calling you “Satan.”   What happened?
  What we are seeing here is the real-time working of the Holy Spirit.  Through Jesus’ teaching, Peter was laying new foundations for the way he would think & act … but those foundations took time to build. Peter at a point did grasp that Jesus was the promised Messiah, but not that this Messiah was destined to be a suffering servant.  
And you know what that means….
We too, as the Body of Christ, are called to bear, not only our personal trials/troubles, but everyone else’s too!    How…
2  Valerie Price, a few years ago, was in charge of a feeding-center in Mogadishu, Somalia. Many starving children were given life itself. She established a school. Many children were given a future with hope.
Valerie was killed by armed bandits.  Her legacy lives. As Jesus said, by losing her life she found it.  If Jesus was just a good man, Valerie died & so did her dream.  If Jesus is Lord, Valerie’s cross-bearing life will shine in the faces of children for generations to come. Just like Jesus, Valerie will rise to glory after the temporary sleep of physical death. Source: Stories for All Seasons, Fuller, p. 38)
Can we be Valerie?   
Can we be the Body of Christ?  
Can we be disciples of Jesus?
What would you die for? ….
My friends Jesus had to die: to eliminate all evil from the material world, to absorb every evil stain into his pure person.  Anything short of death would have left some residual evil in God’s good creation. That is why the death of Jesus was his time of triumph.  Every breath of his life had been an expression God’s wishes.  Through every adversity he proved to be his Father’s Son.  And in death, Jesus completely returned to his God the life given to him. Success is determined not by doing something,
… but by being who you are.

If we recognized our identity as images of God, the earthy words of God, then we would understand success as becoming who we were created to be.  We would see that we received our life from God.  Then our death would be
like it was for Jesus: completely handing our whole life back to the Author of life having actively participated in expressing divine reality, in the very work of the Christ - healing a  broken world.   
Indeed, our time of triumph!  Not sure?....

At this Liturgy ask yourself a question: why did Jesus die as he did?
And consider this:  
The cross is a sign, an invitation, & a revelation:
a sign of the love of Jesus,
an invitation to love as Jesus loved,
a revelation that love entails suffering.  

Love transforms all things.    Believe.   Follow.

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time


21 OTA.11; Isa 22:19-23; Rom 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20
There is a great little story about a child who woke up one night after a frightening nightmare.  She was convinced that there were all kinds of monsters & goblins lurking under her bed & in the corners of the room.  She ran to her parent’s bedroom & after her mother had calmed her down, she took the child back to her room and said, “You don’t need to be afraid, you aren’t alone here. God is right here with you in your room.”   
The little girl said, “I know that God is here,
… but I need someone in my room with skin on!”
(Source: The Holy Longing, R. Rolheiser)
God with skin –on … from the wisdom of children we learn divine truths.
Question: Who is Jesus for you?
In the New Testament, the teaching of the Church, Jesus has a multitude of names.  Jesus is … Son of God, Son of Adam, Word Made Flesh, healer, teacher, forgiver, miracle-worker, Savior, LORD.   Each title reflects a facet of a complex person we call …“the Christ.”   And each designation implies a variance in how we relate to him, how we think of him,
… how we think of ourselves.
Jesus creates a stir wherever he goes.  When preaching in the temple, sparring with the Pharisees, healing the sick & reaching out to the unwanted, he makes an impression upon people.  Clearly more than an ordinary human being, Jesus is a question that demands an answer:
… “Who do you say that I am?”
In today’s telling of the Gospel story Peter knows something rather special that has escaped the others: he says,
“You are the Christ the Son of the living God.”
The other disciples know what others have said: Jesus is Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets, or John the Baptist come back to life.  They know that Jesus is not quite what the people of Israel expected in a Messiah.  
      Coming to faith is not automatic, nor is it just a matter of knowing the catechism.  Peter gives us a good example of how to come to faith in Jesus.  Peter spent time with Jesus in a human way, experiencing his company, following him, watching what he did, listening to what he said, & noting how other people … reacted to him.  Jesus was very different.
       Peter reflected deeply on the question of who Jesus was.  And when it was time for the question to be posed to him directly, Peter hadn’t figured it out by himself, but he was open to the gift of faith.  Jesus tells him, “Flesh & blood (human evidence) has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.        
        In The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey describes a similar experience.  Attending a theological seminary in an age when long hair &
2  sandals meant “hippie,” he commented on the uniform appearance of his classmates.  Short hair, business attire, Bible in hand -one could spot a future pastor at a hundred yards.  Yancey was shocked to realize that Jesus would never have gained admission at his school.  
He simply didn’t look the part! (I had the same experience!)
Though Christianity was profoundly countercultural from its beginning, we sometimes allow our cultural biases to “tame” its message.  For many, being a good Christian is the same as being patriotic - hardly the stance of a man who challenges both religious & political establishments.  Others think that to be a good Christian means to live in a nice neighborhood, drive a respectable car & keep company only with society’s upper crust – again, not exactly the trail blazed by a homeless man who dined with prostitutes & criminals.
Jesus is not what the Jews expected, not what his disciples expected
& not what we expect- he is far greater.  
Our faith can only profit from a deeper, more personal answer to the question of his identity. (Source: Weekday Homily Helps /StAnthony Msger, 2/15/07)
To receive Jesus as Peter did, acknowledging him as the “Christ, the Son of the Living God,” is to receive our own identity & vocation as his follower.  The gift is offered & we accept it.  Until this happens, we are still without our true identity, still waiting … for our real life to begin.
At World Youth Day in Madrid (8/16-21) they will sing a song,
“Firm in Faith” – Stanza 2 says:
         Your hands, they hold us when we have been wounded,
Your eyes, they purify the way we see things,
Your lips, they speak to us words of forgiveness,
Your feet, they guide our steps to find life’s fullness.
Oh Christ you are our brother,
Oh Christ, you are our friend
You are our Lord,
Make us firm in faith. (Source: USCCB/2010 Arzobispado Madrid/2010 San Pablo)
At this Liturgy of Real Life, Jesus is for me, “God with skin-on,” Immanuel - The One who cares. If Jesus is that for you – dare to be “planted & built-up in Jesus Christ, firm in faith” (Col 2:7/ WYD Theme 2011).
Dare to be open like Peter,
dare to believe in a better world,
And … dare to live a REAL LIFE … in Christ

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time


20 OTA.11; Isa 56:1-7; Rom 11;13-32; Matthew 15:21-28
Isaiah words echo down the millennia, “… for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”   How does this vision affect us?
Perhaps 600+ years later, a Canaanite woman with hutspa refuses to accept her non-chosen status.  She yells, “Have pity on me, Son of David, my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
Jesus & the disciples apparently don’t care.   What is happening here?
Jesus deliberately enters Gentile/unclean territory north of Galilee. A gentile woman whom Mathew labels by the outmoded term, Canaanite, the archetypal enemy who Israel struggled with to live in the Promised Land. She scandalously yells out that her daughter is afflicted by a demon.  
Oddly, she address Jesus with proper respect & titles – Lord & Son of David.  She believes he is the long-awaited Messiah.  
She has impressive faith.
Unexpectedly, Jesus ignores her. Perhaps, Jesus is waiting for his disciples to respond to a foreigner.  He does not wait long – “get rid of her” - how heartless, how cold.  They regard her as unworthy, both gentile & unclean.
So Jesus reflects the disciples thinking – “I came only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”   He was, after all, only sent to Israel.
       Then the woman comes right up to him, does him homage, blocks his way & pleads her case.  Can you just imagine the annoyed faces of the disgusted disciples.  Can you feel heat their arrogance & self-righteousness.   This upstart woman refuses to budge & draws even closer to Jesus.  If the woman had been seeking healing for herself, she might have given up, but there is nothing that fuels a mother’s audacity more than concern for her … child’s well-being.   What is Jesus thinking?
       This time Jesus’ response is terribly insulting; “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  Some scholars try to tone down the insult understanding it is an endearing pet. Whatever the genesis of the comment, calling the woman a dog… is a gross insult.      
          Rather than turn away or return insult for insult, the mother redirects her rage, finding clever words & remaining respectful toward Jesus: “Yes, Lord, yet even the doges eat the crumbs tat fall from the master’s table.”  
She will be more than content with scraps they do not want.
With that, something shifts in Jesus.  The woman stretches Jesus (or perhaps he is teaching his disciples) to see her not as “other”/“enemy”, but as one of his own, one with whom he shares a common humanity, a common faith
(Sources: America, 8/11, B. Reid/Weekday Homily Helps, T. Schehr 8/11)



2  in God  & a common desire of the well being of children.  For her great faith so apparent throughout this dialogue her daughter is healed.  At the same time Jesus has given his disciples a valuable lesson. Their animosity toward a Canaanite woman would have denied the healing to an innocent child!  Jesus often chided his disciples for their “little faith”. Beyond securing the healing of her daughter, the narrative depicts this woman sparking in Jesus the idea ….
… that his mission is for all people, not a chosen few.
Hear the prophet Isaiah again, “Do what is right!”
During World War II a Protestant chaplain with the American troops in Italy became a friend of a local Roman Catholic priest.  In time, the chaplain moved on with his unit & was killed in combat.  The priest heard of his death, & knowing that the chaplain had not close family back in the States, he asked the military authorities if the chaplain could be buried in the cemetery behind his church.  Permission was granted.  But the priest ran into a problem with his own church authorities.  They were sympathetic but they said they could not approve the burial of a non-Catholic in a Catholic cemetery.  So, the priest buried his friend just outside the cemetery fence.

Years later, an Army veteran & friend of that chaplain returned to Italy and visited the old priest.  He asked to see the chaplain’s grave.  To his surprise he found the grave inside the cemetery fence.  “Ah,” he said to the priest, “I see that you got permission to move the body.”  “No”, said the priest. “They told me where I couldn’t bury the body.  But nobody ever told me I couldn’t … move the fence.”  (Source; eSermons. Moving Fences)

At this Liturgy, let us recall that each of us has a role to play in making God’s kingdom come, in allowing God’s will to be done. Philosopher/Nun, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein, Nazi victim/1942/Auschwitz concentration camp) once said, “It has always been far from me to think that God’s mercy allows itself to be circumscribed by the visible Church boundaries.  God is truth.
… All who seek truth, seek God, whether this is clear to them or not.”
God’s love is not limited.
Everyone is worthy.    Jesus desires everyone to be saved.
Every time we reach out with understanding & compassion to a neighbor who is of a different faith, every time we pray for peace among nations and religions, every time we stand up for those who are persecuted because of their beliefs in God, we help to reverse the tide of religious discrimination & prejudice.  When we take responsibility & refuse to accept division in God’s name, God’s kingdom comes one step closer.  
Isaiah stated    it simply, “Do what is right.” – move some fences!
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