Articles

Sunday August 30

TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

1. It is Risky to Follow the Lord
2. Our Christian Living Is Our Main Worship

Greeting

The Lord speaks to us, his disciples today:
”Come, follow me, renounce yourselves,
take up your cross and come after me.”
May these words call us away from ourselves
and may the Lord go always with you. R/ And also with you.

Introduction
1. It Is Risky to Follow the Lord
Do we have to seek suffering and death? Not at all! Jesus himself gives us the answer. He begged his Father to take suffering away from him. Yet he accepted death and the cross. Why? Because he loved the Father and he loved the people and wanted to save them. If he did that work and proclaimed his message, the religious leaders would turn against him and seek his death, to get rid of the nuisance he was. Yet he remained faithful to his mission, faithful until death. He is now asking us to remain faithful even at the cost of suffering and death.

2. Our Christian Living Is Our Key Worship
(This is the message of the short but very important second reading.)
Our Sunday Mass is the high point of our Christian living. It expresses intensely what we try to live every day. Everything we think and say and do, our everyday life, as St. Paul says, must give honor and praise to God. This is what we sum up in our Sunday Eucharist. In turn, the Eucharist becomes the living source of a deeper commitment to God and people. A daily life that contradicts our Sunday worship is a distortion and a parody of religion. Let us ask the Lord that our everyday life may worship God in spirit and truth.

Penitential Act

We want an easy religion, without demands,
without sacrifices, without any cost to ourselves.
Let us ask the Lord to forgive us.
(pause)
Lord Jesus, you resolutely took the way
to Jerusalem, to suffer there and die for us:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, you wanted to remain faithful
to the Father who sent you,
and to us, whom you loved and wanted to save:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you invite us
to remain faithful with you to our mission in life:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord,
and forgive us our cowardice and our compromises.
Give us your determination and courage
and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

1. It Is Risky to Follow the Lord
Let us pray to God for the courage
to follow his Son the whole way of faithful love
(pause)
God our Father,
your Son Jesus knew that your heart was set
on offering light and life to all people,
and so he faithfully accepted his mission
even if it would bring him death on the cross.
We are afraid of the cross.
Make us follow Jesus all the way.
Let your Son pray for us
that our faith may not weaken
and that we may have the courage
to make the sacrifices that bring life to others.
May this give us the fullness of your life,
now and for ever. R/ Amen.

2. Our Christian Living Is Our Key Worship
Let us pray to God
that our whole life may honor him
(pause)
Our God and Father,
Today we bring you the perfect worship
of your Son Jesus Christ.
With him we praise and thank you
by offering ourselves with him.
May this offering not be confined
to the fleeting moment of this Eucharist
but burst forth in the life of every day
through our love of you
and our dedicated service to the people given us
to cherish and to share with what we are and have.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading: There Is a Fire Burning in My Heart

The prophet Jeremiah complains against God, for his mission brings him only trouble. Yet he keeps trusting God and continues his task.

Reading: JER 20:7-9

You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.

Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.

I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.

Responsorial Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

R. (2b) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
For your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

Second Reading: Offer Your Life as a Sacrifice

Paul stresses a basic truth: true worship consists in seeking God’s will and offering our lives as a sacrifice. Only then can our Eucharistic worship be genuine.

Reading 2: ROM 12:1-2

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Alleluia MT 11:29AB

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Take my yoke upon you, says the Lord,
and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me

Jesus predicts his passion and resurrection. Then he asks his disciples to follow him on his road of the cross to life. Peter protests, for this is hard to take. But it is God’s way.

Gospel: MT 16 21-27

Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
He turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

Then Jesus said to his disciples,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct."

Commentary
Why Was Peter Bald
When you see a representation of the twelve apostles how do you know which one of them is Peter? Is it not that Peter is usually the bald one? And why was Peter bald? Here I would like to offer a theory that comes, not from Scriptural scholarship, but from personal reflection. According to my theory Peter was bald because he used to tear his hair out in exasperation at having to live with Jesus. Maybe the expression in English 'tearing one's hair out' as meaning to be exasperated or frustrated goes back to Peter and his experience with Jesus. For example, one day Jesus and the disciples went to the temple to pray. A Pharisee came in and prayed like this in front of everyone, "Thanks be to you God that I am not like other people around here. I pray regularly. I am not a thief or a liar or a womanizer like so many others around here that I might mention. You are lucky, God, to have good people like me around. How do you tolerate sinners like that tax collector there in the corner?" In the corner the poor tax collector was ashamed to even raise his eyes but just said quietly from his heart "Lord, have mercy on me a sinner." For Peter there was no doubt who was the best man around, it was the Pharisee. So when Jesus said that it was the humble tax collector that went home justified and not the self-righteous Pharisee Peter just could not get it, so chkk!, he started to pull his hair out!
And then a very rich man came in and put two large notes on the collection plate. "Boy, oh Boy, look at that," Peter said. "No," Jesus said, but look at that as they heard a little "clonk, clonk." S poor widow had dropped two coins into the collection box. "You judge by the amount given. I judge by what is left over when the person has given. The rich man still had his millions after he gave his donation but the poor woman gave everything she had." This was too much for Peter and so, chkk! he lost another tuft of hair.
The same thing happened when Jesus told stories that made the hated Samaritans the virtuous heroes. And then there was the father who had two sons, one obedient and one a useless waster. But when the useless sinful one came home the father embraced him and had a party. Who could live with someone who so exasperatingly turns normal expectations upside down?
But it was especially on the matter of suffering that Peter tore his hair out. In the Gospel last Sunday Jesus had asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter had got it right, "You are the Messiah," he had answered. And Jesus had answered, "Terrific! Because you are so smart I will make you the head of the Apostles!" Shortly afterwards, while Peter was still glowing over his promotion, Jesus began to talk about going up to Jerusalem and suffering there. This was too much for Peter. He took Jesus aside and said "Look here, Jesus. You are the boss and now you have made me the boss. The boss does not suffer. He pushes the dirty jobs on to others. You have got it all wrong. You and I should not have to suffer!" Then Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan. You are still getting it wrong. The values are those of the people of this world and not those of God." and all poor Peter could do was sit down and tear his hair out!
And to this day we are still getting it wrong. Each of us feels somewhere deep down that, while it is alright and normal for others to suffer, we should be exempt. We want to be elite. We cultivate the Lord with our devotions and offerings trying to bribe the privilege of exemption from suffering from him. But he will not be bribed. In fact, he showed us by his own life that suffering is not to be avoided but rather must be faced.
The Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck begins his book The Road Less Traveled with the words: "Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we really see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is not longer difficult. Because once we accept it, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters. Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties in life as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy...
The tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all human mental illness. Since most of us have this tendency to a greater or less degree most of us are mentally ill to a greater or less degree, lacking complete mental health... In the succinctly elegant words of Carl Jung, "Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering, but the suffering itself becomes more painful than the legitimate suffering it was designed to avoid."
When if comes to prayer most of us are acting like Peter, most of us are neurotics. We are praying that God will solve our problems for us and take away our sufferings. Yet these problems and sufferings are as essential to our growth as soil and fertilizer is for plants. True prayer is not to take away our problems and sufferings - to take away reality-but rather, to help us face it.
Most people come to meditation with the hope that they will be successful, that they will be good at meditating. Many give up because they find it difficult, even impossible. But this is exactly where meditation is effective. It is in the suffering of our failure that we are strengthened to face the reality of life. If I ever find someone who says that prayer and meditation are easy I know that I have found someone who is in a fool's paradise. To find God is to constantly seek him. To pray is to constantly seek to pray. And this is a paradigm of life. In meditation we suffer the lack of achievement of our desires. That naughty little mantra continues to elude us. If we continue to try to say it patiently and consistently without tearing our hair out this will wash over into our lives. We will also be able to face the sufferings and frustrations of life without going bald in the process.

Intercessions

Our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to follow him to carry the cross after him and to entrust to him all who suffer. Let us say to him:
R/ Lord, be our strength.

– For the Church, that Christ may become more visible in its commitment to serve God and people, in its loving concern for the poor and its continuous conversion to the Gospel, let us pray:
R/ Lord, be our strength.
– For all Christians who claim to follow Christ, that they may live up without fear to the demands of the Gospel and bear witness to the crucified Lord, let us pray:
R/ Lord, be our strength.
– For those who suffer in their bodies and their hearts, for those who work for justice in the world and for peace among people, that they may realize that they are one with the Lord Jesus in his passion and death, let us pray:
R/ Lord, be our strength.
– For those whom it is difficult to accept God’s will and their mission in life, that they may encounter friends who inspire them to regain their trust in God and people, and who encourage them when they are afraid, let us pray:
R/ Lord, be our strength.
– For us gathered here for the Eucharist, that we may honestly seek God’s will in union with Jesus our Lord, let us pray:
R/ Lord, be our strength.

Lord Jesus Christ, you invite us to follow you and to offer your sacrifice with you. We wish to work with you to bring your life and grace to all our brothers and sisters. Be with us now and for ever. R/ Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
we wish to offer to you
the sacrifice that pleases you,
your Son Jesus Christ.
Accept also through him
the sacrifice of our lives,
that with your Son we may die to sin
and rise to new life
in the realities of everyday living.
Let this celebration reflect and express
our pains and hopes, our trials and joys,
in union with the paschal mystery
of Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

By his cross and resurrection Jesus brought us forgiveness and life. Let us join him in his sacrifice here, that we may follow him also in the sacrifices demanded by everyday life.

Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer

With Jesus our Lord
we pray to our Father in heaven
that we may always seek his will,
so that God’s ways may be our ways. R/ Our Father...

Deliver Us

Deliver us Lord, from every evil
and grant us the inner peace
which comes from doing your will
even when it is hard to do so.
Keep us free from discouragement
and help us to spare no effort
in bringing your love and healing to all.
Lead us forward in joyful hope
toward the full coming
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...

Invitation to Communion

This is the body of Christ,
our Lamb of God who suffered,
died for us on the cross
and is risen from the dead.
Happy are we, for we are invited
to share his meal and to follow him. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...

Prayer after Communion

Lord our God,
we have eaten with your Son
the stale bread of our poverty
and the refreshing bread of his strength.
We have drunk with him
the sour wine of suffering
and the tasty wine of joy and hope.
May Jesus give us the courage
to turn the sorrows that are part of life
into gifts of self to others
and to make us reliable sources
of strength and comfort and hope
to all those we encounter
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Blessing

Sometimes, like the prophet Jeremiah,
we struggle and contest with God
in moments of trial and discouragement.
Keep in mind that God loves us
and wants our happiness.
Yet at times we must take up
the crosses demanded
by faithfulness to our family, our task in life,
to the ways of the Gospel.
May the Lord be then with you and bless you:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
May the Lord Jesus go with you on all your ways. R/ Thanks be to God.