By Father Paul Nord, O.S.B.
Sunday Scripture
First Reading: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Responsorial: Psalm 63:2-6, 8-9; Second Reading: Romans 12:1-2; Gospel: Matthew 16:21-27
The prophet Jeremiah feels great anguish. He cries out: “You duped me, O LORD!” People are mocking Jeremiah, laughing at him. Because, he says: “violence and outrage is my message.” Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. The people are asking if Jeremiah is a true prophet or a false prophet. Will Jeremiah’s prophecies really be realized?
Deuteronomy 18:21-22 says: “if a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the word does not come true, it is a word the LORD did not speak.” Jerusalem’s residents hoped that Jeremiah’s prophecies of destruction were false and would not happen. Therefore, many persecuted Jeremiah as a false prophet, deserving of punishment. But Jeremiah’s prophecies came true when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians.
In his distress, Jeremiah wants to stop prophesying — to no longer speak God’s name and his prophetic messages. Jeremiah feels great angst from the opposition of the people to his message. But Jeremiah feels compelled to speak in God’s name — despite the suffering that it brings Jeremiah. This is the mark of a true prophet. Jeremiah says the urge to speak God’s word is like “fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones.” This describes a fire throughout all his body (my bones), deep within his bodily center (my heart). May we likewise burn to proclaim God’s name and word.
St. Paul makes this exhortation to the church in Rome: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.” This begins a new section of Paul’s letter — Romans 12-15 — which is focused on upright moral conduct. Paul gives specific exhortations about how our faith in Christ must be expressed by our conduct.
In Romans 9-11, Paul praises God’s wisdom, justice and mercy. In Christ, God wishes to make us his sons and daughters. To be in such an intimate relationship with God, we must be just and merciful in our actions. In this way, we may live according to God’s wisdom revealed in Christ.
Paul instructs us to make our “bodies as a living sacrifice.” This likely refers to the whole person with all his/her actions. Paul says this sacrifice (of ourselves) should embody three characteristics — “living,” “holy” and “pleasing.” Sacrifices in Jerusalem’s temple were described as “holy” and “pleasing” to God. The description “living” indicates the effect of the sacrifice – it brings us to life with God. The message of Romans 6:11 is similar: “you too must think of yourselves as [being] dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul exhorts us: “Do not conform yourselves to this age.” This is a negative restatement of his first exhortation (“offer your bodies”). Paul continues: “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Paul uses the same passive verb: “be transformed” in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.”
It is God who transforms us. Christ wills to transform us into his image – humanity perfected in holiness. Paul commands: be transformed “by the renewal of your mind.” Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (4:22-23) has a similar phrase: “put away the old self of your former way of life … and be renewed in the spirit of your minds.”
In both Pauline verses, the Christian’s “mind” (Greek: “nous”) undergoes “renewal.” This is a transformation of the Christian’s understanding of his moral conduct. This helps us to “discern what is the will of God.” We seek to make our actions “good and pleasing and perfect.”
Last Sunday, the Gospel recounted Peter’s identification of Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In response, Jesus told Simon Peter: “you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church… I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus predicts his suffering, death, and resurrection. Jesus makes this prediction two more times: in Matthew 17:22-23 and Matthew 20:17-19. Likewise, the Gospels of Mark and Luke each record three times in which Jesus told his disciples that the authorities in Jerusalem would cause him to suffer and die, but that he would “be raised up.”
Peter is surprised and greatly upset by Jesus’ prediction. He rebukes Jesus for saying this. But Jesus rebukes Peter in return: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.” This is quite a change from Jesus’ praise of Peter a few verses before (16:17-19). Jesus says that Peter is a “stumbling block” to him.
When Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah, Jesus says: “my heavenly Father” has revealed this to Peter. But when Peter rebukes God’s plan for Jesus to die on the cross, Jesus says Peter is “thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” This contrast shows that Peter is capable of both. Indeed, all of us are like Peter in this way.
When Roman authorities killed a man by crucifixion, they often forced him to carry the horizontal beam to the place of crucifixion. There the vertical wooden pole was already fixed in the ground. Matthew 15:32 gives evidence that Jesus did this, since Simon of Cyrene assisted Jesus with the cross.
Jesus reinforces his prediction of his crucifixion by telling his disciples that they must act similarly: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” This envisions Jesus’ disciples carrying their own horizontal beam to the place of their crucifixion — following in Jesus’ footsteps.
Jesus promises his disciples that the Son of Man “will repay all according to his conduct.” Jesus says this will happen when “the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory.” Jesus speaks of a new age — the full arrival of God’s kingdom. This fulfills the prophecy of Daniel 7:14: “I saw coming with the clouds of heaven One like a son of man.”