Aug. 28, 22nd Sunday A Cycle Lectionary # 125
If we want to pray the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord's Prayer captures its message best in the prayer Jesus gave us. We often can make sense of a given passage by praying the Our Father and then rereading the passage to see which of the seven intercessions of that prayer seem to fit. Today's Gospel is about doing the will of God, hence, the phrase "Thy will be done" is helpful in our meditation on the Gospel passage read in the liturgy for this Sunday.
Conforming ourselves to Christ Jesus means doing the will of the Father and this means the way of the Cross is essential to our transformation into Jesus Christ. Without the Cross there is no true discipleship; without the Cross there is no salvation for those who believe in Jesus, the Son of God. It is by the Cross that we are made into disciples of Jesus who are one with him in doing the will of the Father. Salvation and Resurrection are the immediate fruit of the Cross of Jesus.
We are able to meditate on the readings in the light of this call to the cost of discipleship. In the first reading we hear the prophetic and anguished voice of Jeremiah who among the prophets is a prefigure of Jesus' as the Suffering Anointed One of God. The prayer of Jeremiah is an outcry against God who has duped him, that is, seduced him into this horrible way of suffering among his own people. They will attempt to silence him but his belly is on fire with the word of God even though it is a pronouncement about the sins of his own nation and people. Symbolically we can see the image of the Cross when Jeremiah is put into the stocks under the yoke used for constraining animals. Dag Hammarskjold's simple prayer is similar to Jeremiah's: "For all that has been,'thanks', to all that will be 'Yes.'
Peter puts obstacles to the pronouncement of Jesus by refusing to accept what Jesus tells him and the apostles about his immediate future--the sufferings and death he will undergo at the hands of the Romans. He will be a suffering servant and messiah not a royal one as Peter wishes him to be. The social and religious order of the world of Peter is being turned over topsy-turvy. Jesus rebukes him strongly calling Peter an Adversary like the one who tortured Job but even worse. He does not understand the prayer "Thy will be done!"
Our passage is powerful and contains the central message of the Gospel. Fr. Faley, T.O.R. succinctly comments on it: "The sayings on discipleship (vv24-28) are well suited to the Matthean context. Cross-bearing and self-denial are integral to any true following of Jesus.It need not be sought out; it flows from the Christian life itself. Cross-bearing derives its raison d'etre from the following of Jesus." (Footprints on the Mountain, page 569).
Our short reading from Paul to the Romans is about sacrifice and fits the theme of the Gospel. Paul challenges us to be conformed to Christ, that is, to be transformed into Jesus by our spiritual sacrifice of who we are in the sight of God and accepting that with all of its pain and suffering and even death. "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship."
Jesus, Jeremiah, and Paul show us how to pray and live out "Thy Will Be Done." Saying yes as they did and as Mary did at the Annunciation we enter into transforming our lives into that of Jesus. Paul says this in a masterful manner: "I swear by God's truth, there is no Yes and No about what we say to you. The Son of God, the Christ Jesus, that we proclaimed among you--I mean Silvanus and Timothy and I--was never Yes and No about what we say to you: with Him it was always Yes and however many promises God made, the Yes to them all is in Him. That it why it is 'through Him' that we answer Amen to the praise of God." (II Corinthians 2:18-20). Yes, Lord, Thy will be done! Amen!
posted by Fr. Bert SM at 9:22 AM
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