The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
                                                                                    September 3, 2023
                                                                                                                        Fr. José Maria de Sousa Alvim Calado Cortes, F.S.C.B.
                                                                                                                                                                          

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Sunday Reading Meditations

In last Sunday's Gospel, Jesus exalted Peter for his response when asked: "Who do you say that I am?" (Mt 16:15-16).  :In today's Gospel, the opposite happens.  Jesus humiliates Peer tremendously in front of the other apostles for attempting to dissuade him from the cross, calling him the worst name in the world: Satan.

In the second reading, Saint Paul says: "Do no be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom 12:12).

Peter's initial reaction when Jesus talks about the cross is conformed to this world.  The logic of the world is against the cross.  The world does not understand the cross.  The logic of the cross is the logic of love.  Jesus absolutely contradicts the selfishness of the mundane vision of things.  The exaltation of the individual at all costs is contrary to the Christian conception of life.

Saint Paul alerts us tat we need to transform our mentality.

We are like Peter.  Many times we feel that what this world gives us is more attractive than what Christ has to offer.  That is what happens when we reject the Church's doctrine about important matters in our lives and make our own interpretations.  We are mundane when we think about ourselves as the center of everything.  For a Christian, the center of reality is Jesus' cross.  Love and self-giving are at the center of all things, not pride and selfishness. 

The greatness of Peter is that he accepted this tremendous correction and humiliation without taking offense.  Are we willing to accept the same kind of humiliation?  Are we open to accept corrections from God?  For example, how does our way of life compare with what the Church teaches us?  Do we live our faith in a worldly way, as if it were a supermarket where we can pick and choose only what appeals to us?

We need to be aware that if we truly live our faith, we shall sooner or later feel its incongruity with the world.  If we do not feel this incongruity, something is not working.  The disciples of Jesus follow him entirely, facing the world's opposition with him.  The greatest examples are the martyrs.  Nowadays, they abound, although the media tries to ignore them. Are we aware that 150 thousand Christians are killed each year all over the world?

In the Western world, they are not killing the body yet but they do kill the soul!  The worst thing is that we do not even realize what is happening.  They do not kill us but they ignore us or tag us as sectarian.

         The grace of our encounter with Christ through the Church makes us different.  It brings us gladness.  This gladness is unknown to the world.

Not being conformed to this world means to discover the beauty of the cross.  The power of the attraction of the cross is infinitely greater than what this world considers attractive.  There is a mysterious beauty hidden in the cross that we are called to find.

We celebrated the memorial of Saint Augustine last week.  Like peter, he is a great example of conversion from a worldly way of living to a Christian one.  In the Confessions, his autobiography, he says: "Late I have loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, eve new, late have I loved you! . . .  Created things kept me from you."  This is what to be mundane means, when created things keep us from God.  "I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.  You touched me, and I burned for your peace."

Saint Augustine had a similar experience to that of the prophet Jeremiah, which we heard in the first reading: "You have seduced me, O Lord, and I Iet myself be seduced"  (Jer 20:7).

Let us also e seduced by the beauty of the cross because, as Jesus says in the Gospel: "Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it"  (Mt 16:25).  Let us find the beauty and let us experience the gladness of following Christ.  Amen.