Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, 8/30

Following Jesus is Hard (Mt 16:21-27)

What sharp contrast with last weeks Gospel! It has always been striking to me that immediately following Peter's beautiful confession of Jesus as "Son of God and Messiah" comes this dramatic moment in which Jesus calls Peter, "Satan".

In that sense, this passage seems like a good opportunity for us to return to basics of Christianity: “Do I want to follow Jesus? Am I willing to deny myself as He asks me to do?”

Jesus rebukes Peter for being an obstacle to God’s way of salvation. He like most Jewish people expected the Messiah to free them from the worldly oppression. And Jesus tells Peter that he thinks “not as God does, but as human beings do.” How often do we not also have a merely “human mindset”? Is it not difficult to have the “mindset of God”? Of a God who chose to save us from our sins by offering his Son up to death on a Cross? Of a God who seeks each one of us and asks us to follow Him by denying ourselves and our interests, to “lose our life for his sake in order to find it”?

The Christian life is not an easy life, and the Lord clearly wanted to prepare his disciples to understand what would be a very difficult pathway. In what ways do we find the Lord inviting you to “lose your life for his sake”? In what ways does He invite you to deny yourself?

Perhaps if you are like me, this seems oftentimes too difficult. It is in these moments of weakness that I remember that from the human perspective, I am not capable. I truly need the Lord and his love and grace in order to be faithful to his call. Only by receiving the gift of God, the “Living water” like the Samaritan woman at the well can we become a “fount” that is able to endure the hardships that following Jesus will entail. My prayers for each of you.

Patrick Travers