XXII Sunday of Ordinary Time -- Year A

First: Jer 20: 7-9; Second: Rom 12: 1-2; Gospel: Mt 16: 21-27

THEME of the READINGS

The will of God is the supreme norm for the prophet Jeremiah, for Jesus Christ and for Christians. The cross and the sacrifice to be faithful to it are inseparable from God’s will. Jeremiah feels the stimulus of rebellion, the temptation to throw everything overboard; but "there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot" (first reading). Today’s Gospel follows Peter’s proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God (previous Sunday). Now, Jesus makes very clear what this means for him, as the Messiah, according God’s plan. "He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, on the third day be raised" (Gospel). Saint Paul teaches us that true worship consists in the offering of oneself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God (second reading).

DOCTRinal MESSAGE

The Will of God is history’s divine set of norms for the salvation of mankind. Being divine, this set of norms has a logic that differs from human logic, and may even appear to be contradictory and hostile to it. The prophet Jeremiah knows something about that. He was a peaceful man, but God called him to a vocation that was the opposite of his natural inclination: he would have to cry "ruin, destruction." In spite of everything, the power of God’s will shakes him up inside and devours him, and is such that he cannot refuse. Jeremiah’s "passion" as he narrates it in his "confessions," is the most faithful expression of his fidelity to God’s mysterious plan for human history.

In the Gospel’s account, Jesus announces for the first time the will of God for him in the future. "From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things" (Gospel). Moved perhaps by his will to stand out and by his misunderstood love for Jesus, Peter wants to steer him away from the path of God’s will, a path of passion and the cross. Jesus knows the will of the Father and cannot allow anyone to interfere with his personal relationship with God. As a man, he has a very hard time in accepting God’s plan, so hard and painful. Yet, fidelity to his Father’s will is so important in his life that nothing or no-one can separate him from it. His passion is such that he does not hesitate to call Peter "Satan," for in his eyes he is like a devil seeking to steer him away from God’s plan.

Jeremiah and especially Jesus show us the need and the importance of knowing God’s will and adhering to it with all one’s heart and strength without hesitation or complicity with evil, however minor. A transition must be made in real life from the knowledge and love of the divine will to action. Do the will of God, with the difficulties, pain, and hardships this may imply. Jesus is very clear about this. "If any man would ocme after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Gospel). In other words, if anyone wants to do the Father’s will in everything, let him renounce his own thoughts and desires, so human and so far from God’s thoughts and desires. Saint Paul, on his part, asks the Christians of Rome to offer their bodies "as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (second reading). 

PASTOral SUGGESTIONS

In the footsteps of God’s will. The great footsteps of God’s will are first of all inscribed in our very nature, then in our Christian vocation, and finally in our state and condition of life. Therefore, those who live according to their condition as rational and spiritual beings, live as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, and responsibly perform their duties and work. Most of us perceive such obligations relatively easily, but to follow them is a different matter. We find many attractive things that distract us, many obstacles that we are not always ready to overcome, a lot of resistance when we try to behave according to our conscience. What are the distractions, the obstacles, the resistance that we encounter in our milieu, in our parish, in our community, in ourselves?

The cross and the glory. At Easter, the apex of God’s plan for Jesus Christ, the cross and glory are interwoven. In the life of Christians, in God’s plan for each one of us, it is no different. The will of God does not foresee the cross first and then the glory, or vice versa. It is the cross and the glory at the same time. To know and do the will of God entail both the cross and glory, which are different and yet inseparable. Those who do God’s will offer a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God. Those who do the will of God perceive, in the midst of their pain, an inner song of joy and peace, which is a prelude to the glory which they will share with Christ in the kingdom of heaven. There are those who only see the cross, and there are those who only want to see the glory. The real Christian combines both in the will of God, and accepts them with love and joy.

Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOA.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].