Sunday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27
One ice-cold Michigan morning, my elderly mother realized she left her cellphone in her car. Not waking my little brother to help, Mom ran out in her pajamas to get it. The car doors were frozen shut. She ran back inside, got a cup of hot water, went out, and poured it on the door lock. It opened. When she finally found the phone and tried to get out, the door had frozen shut again. Irritated and freezing, Mom threw herself against the door, which did nothing but hurt her shoulder. “I know,” she thought. Lying down on the front seat, Mom kicked her legs as hard as she could against the door. Hurt her ankle. Car door 2, Mom zero. Only then realizing, “Oh, I have a phone,” she tried calling my brother. Dead battery. By the grace of God, some college kids on their way to school saw Mom in her car, and helped her out.
This adventure of my mother and her cellphone is true, but also a parable about the spiritual life. We can focus so much on what we want that everything else fades into the background.
For Mom, it was a cellphone she absolutely had to have. But there are many other things people think they must have: more money, more power, more possessions, more recognition. And it works the other way, too; there are many things people think they absolutely must avoid. For Jeremiah in the first reading, it was the ridicule and reproach that came with being a prophet.
In either case, the more we focus on what we want, the more we lose sight of what really matters, and we need to be reminded.
In Jeremiah’s case, his heart reminded him. Notice how the reading ends; speaking of the drive to prophesy, he says, “… it becomes like fire burning in my heart… I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.” God’s word has taken hold of him. It consumes him. His mind may say, “Walk away,” but this is a matter of the heart, and in the end, his love of God is far more important than any discomfort.
Peter has yet to learn that. He, who just called Jesus the Messiah moments before this, wants something, too – he wants Christ without the cross. If going to Jerusalem means suffering and dying, then DON’T GO. But then comes the reply, “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
This is a reminder for all of us who want to be disciples of Christ: True discipleship means focusing not on what I want, but on what God wants of me. And what is that? Jesus is pretty clear: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” So there will be a cost: self-denial, bearing hardships, and going where I may not want to go.
In other words, sacrifice.
I hear the word “sacrifice” and might think “give up something,” but remember, a sacrifice is fundamentally a self-giving. A matter of the heart. For example, when a parent sacrifices for their child, is the parents’ focus on what they’ve lost or what the child has gained? The gain, of course. Why? Because it’s all about love.
That’s the point we can so easily miss when we hear Jesus speak about denying ourselves and taking up our cross. Our faith isn’t about suffering for the sake of suffering, or God asking us to give things up because He wants to make our lives miserable.
It’s all about love.
Jesus gave himself for us out of love. And when he asks us to take up our cross and follow him, he’s inviting us to love in the same way: not making ourselves the center of everything, not asking only, “What do I want?” or “What can I avoid?” but asking, “What does love require of me?”
It will require something. There’s always a cost. But there is a promise hidden in our Lord’s words: “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
The readings today urge us to keep a proper perspective in life. If our primary focus is where it should be – on Christ, who gave everything for us – then the only question that matters is, “What is God asking me to give, and am I willing to give it for love of Him?”
Those who are, are those who discover that in so doing, they haven’t lost their life at all.
They have finally found it.
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