28^th Sun in Ord Time   10/11/26

 

When beginning to pray with this gospel I had a new and even disturbing thought about the theme.  The theme is about our need to respond to divine invitations.   So yes, we say yes.   But these invitations keep coming.   The divine never lets us alone.   That is, we are being invited every second into some presence in the universe that is God’s gift to us. 

An anxious thought.   Do we need to RSVP every moment?    Our bodies, for example, are invited to take a breath.   Fortunately our bodies react instinctively without us having to worry about accepting the invitation.   But this sort of thing is happening all the time.  Right now, too, the chairs are inviting us to be comfortable, the light is inviting us to open our eyes, the sounds are inviting us to listen.   And, by the way, if you don’t want to accept my invitation and listen to my voice, I don’t have a plan for retaliation.   No need to be anxious.

My least favorite invitation is the one to get up in the morning.   And I don’t do it out of any eagerness to get going in the early hours….showers and coffee have none of the attractiveness of the invitation described in Isaiah, to a feast on the Lord’s Mountain But I get up and get some coffee with at least one goal in mind:  I don’t want my house mates to worry about whether the old man in the house died during the night.

Truly, though, the morning sunrise often presents a delightful sky.   And even now as we awaken in the darker hours there might be sights to see.   Despite the light pollution, the Philadelphia sky was quite clear early yesterday morning and I could see most of the stars of Orion.   Despite the daily violence, such sights at dawn always help me be confident about the day ahead.

Even the retired among us are used to having each day…. at least a short list of “invitations” to attend to.   Invitations simply to read personal emails, invitations to the prayers for the day.   Invitations to respond to questions or to send a return greeting to a friend or family member.   And who needs a return phone call or a card in the mail?   What part will I play in a family or church group that is preparing an event?   And everyday I am invited for a walk and a nap.   The more I think of the usual ordinary daily invitations, the less anxious I become.

And I think, surely, this gospel story for us is about the invitations that we sometimes ignore.   Jesus’s parable here illustrates the ignorance of people who are so pre-occupied by their own concerns, here named as a farm and a business, so pre-occupied to even listen to an important invitation from a ruler with influence over their futures.   The interaction between those who turn down the invitation by killing the messengers and the king who destroys their insulting cities is Jesus’s way of grapping our attention….but it also addresses the danger of violence that is always present in human affairs.

Here Jesus’s principal message for his listeners is clear:  “I have been sent to invite the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to the kingdom of God.  Repent of your narrow preoccupations with Temple sacrifice and Torah laws.  Come to be with me and celebrate this kingdom because those who refuse the invitation will be lost in their own confusion.”  But the Temple leaders and interpreters of a strict Torah refuse.   Thus as Jesus says, the invitation will then be shared with those who have no farms and businesses, those on the streets who rarely enjoy such good fortune.  In short the invitation is accepted by many ordinary Jews and then, of course, by the Gentiles.

For us living in this troubled world, a banquet on the Isaian mountain seems distant and unreal.   But Jesus’ invitation is on-going and we, yes we, are now invited to be among those messengers sent into the world to make sure that everyone hears the message, not just the farmers and business owners.   We are the disciples and each day we are invited with the sound of the morning alarm to, as the song says, “Go out, go out to all the world and tell the good news, tell the good, good news.”  

Our invitations to the wedding banquet celebrate good news, especially the God-given human dignity of every person.  But so many troubles now overwhelm that dignity.   We shudder considering what continues to happen in Gaza, the West Bank & Ukraine.  And the malnutrition and death in Sudan.   And here in Pennsylvania, weekend gun violence took the life of a police officer in West Philly and the lives of eight people in Erie.   And the Pope continues to call out our government. The most recent issue: The decision to livestream the execution of a man convicted of killing his military colleagues.  The Pope called it “incomprehensible.” 

The more outrages pile on, the more discerning we must be about how to accept God’s invitation to tell the good news.  A good first step is prayer and our best prayers are within a community of persons supporting one another in finding practical ways to temper the violence in human hearts.  Yes, God-given dignity calls us to respect human life from conception to natural death, to respect persons no matter their race or their sexual orientation, calls for us, especially now in this country to continue practices that create humane pathways for immigrants to gain citizenship.   We proclaim the words of Mary who said, “the hungry he has satisfied with good things and the rich sent empty away.”  So we look people in the eye and find God there.   And we preach at least a poverty of spirit and invite all to believe the good news.

And, of course, as we said earlier, the invitation is every moment because God is found in all things.   And sometimes we are invited to silence our voices and accept the invitation to quiet prayer in a community committed to the mission of Jesus Christ.  Yes to some quiet prayer with Jesus at this Eucharistic table.

 

27^th Sun in Ord Time Oct 4  Saint Joseph's University

                                   Cornerstone, Barbelin Hall, Saint Joseph's University, 1926

                    “The Lord keeps this House Spotless into eternity!"   

Isaiah 5:1-7

Let me now sing of my friend, my friend's song concerning his vineyard.
My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside;
he spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines;
within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press.
Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.
Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard: What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done?
Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?
Now, I will let you know what I mean to do with my vineyard:
take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled! Yes, I will make it a ruin:
it shall not be pruned or hoed, but overgrown with thorns and briers;
I will command the clouds not to send rain upon it.
The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah are his cherished plant;
he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!
 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20

R. (Is 5:7a) The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
A vine from Egypt you transplanted;
you drove away the nations and planted it.
It put forth its foliage to the Sea,
its shoots as far as the River.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.

Philippians 4:6-9

Brothers and sisters: Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.  Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,  if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things. Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you.
 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I have chosen you from the world, says the Lord,
to go and bear fruit that will remain.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
 

Gospel

Matthew 21:33-43

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
"Hear another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. 
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. 
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned. 
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,
but they treated them in the same way. 
Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking,
'They will respect my son.'
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"
They answered him,
"He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times." 
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?
Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

27^th Sun in Ord Time Oct 4, 2026   SJU  Evening Masses

 

Vineyards have been producing good grapes for thousands of years especially for landowners who pay devoted attention to their care.  So vineyards were a good choice both in the first reading and in the gospel just read as images for God’s people.  The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah in our first reading uses the vineyard image to state that God takes good care of His people but, despite God’s care, God’s people are like vineyards that yield sour grapes.    And then in the gospel Jesus has this to say:  God’s people are like tenants in a vineyard who steal from God, the landowner.  They steal the good grapes that have been produced, even killing God’s son to carry out their thievery.   Such images remind us of how we human beings can make a mess of God’s attempts at the formation of good and healthy human societies..

 

We pause here for a one-liner:  Our vineyard images remind us of what people busy in vineyards are good at doing:  They are good at whining.

 

First: Some sour grapes in today’s human culture

Second:  Jesus as the foundation for a new culture

Third:  How our own University relies on Christ as our foundation

 

We are now at the beginning of October, a month when the universal Church focuses our prayer and attention on two types of sour grapes among the many related troubles in our worldwide culture.   The Church chooses the whole month of October to focus prayers and actions on the protection of life.   Our Christian belief in the dignity of our God-given human life fills us with a desire to protect such life from the moment of conception until natural death.  

Today’s culture, however, so often ignores that protection with the practice of abortion and the practice of those choosing to end their lives at a time when their minds and bodies seem to betray them.  In refusing to respect life we take good and living grapes and decide that they are sour and not worth keeping.

 

But to add to our attention this October Right to Life month begins just as the Church completes what we call the Season of Creation.  That season each September honors God’s gift of all creation in our world and recognizes the human misuse of creation that has created swift changes in our climate.   The Season of Creation began on September 1 and ends today, October 4, on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.   Francis preached about the glory of all living things in God’s creation and today we celebrate this feast on the day that is the 800^th anniversary of his death.   In more recent centuries especially our lack of care for creation is creating sour grapes for us.

 

Our vineyard readings today encourage us to consider a culture of good grapes.  On such vines sit our own desires to support the Right to Life and our own hopes for the steadiness of the natural world in all the Seasons of Creation.   But to add to the vineyard image Jesus offers another image in today’s gospelreading that gives his own support to our hopes and desires. 

 

Jesus provides this second image after he discusses the vineyard.   Here Jesus builds on the story of the murder of the son of the vineyard owner.   Here Jesus, the Son of God, speaks of his own life after his own murder.   He predicts what is to happen.   Jesus puts it this way.   “The stone which the builder rejected has become the cornerstone.”  God’s crucified son returns to bring about a fresh world.    The risen Christ with us becomes a cornerstone, a building block.  His person becomes the foundation of something new.   The Jews in Jesus’s day often thought of the Torah, the law, as the foundation of their faith.   And with Jesus as a fresh and personal foundation for faith, his summary of the law in the Torah survives as “Love of God and love of neighbor.”

 

What is a cornerstone?   Before the fabrication of metal structures, the cornerstone of any stone building was carefully chosen.  The base stone, which is placed at the corner of two walls at right angles to one another, needs a ninety degree outer angle.   Such a stone, too, needed weight bearing strength to support one of the four corners of the building.   Jesus tells us that though he was rejected, he will rise again as the cornerstone of a new community of faith, hope and love carrying his Jewish background into the new era.

 

Foundation images like this often show up in religious culture.   For example, Muhammed in speaking of his importance to Islam uses a similar building block image.  He speaks of himself as a vital brick that fills in an empty space in the wall of the house that had been built already by the Abrahamic prophets.

 

Finally:  You will be happy to know that we here at Saint Joseph’s University will very soon be celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the blessing of the cornerstone for our first building here in Overbrook.   That building, now-named Barbelin, made it possible for SJC to move here from our previous location in North Philadelphia.  On November 13, 1927 the cornerstone was blessed.  You can see the stone itself at the City Ave opening of the central walkway through Barbelin..    I hope we can mark the 100 years by gathering at that stone next year on November 13, 2027

 

The stone is inscribed: “The Lord keeps this home spotless until eternity.”   And the Arch in part supported by the cornerstone over that walkway entrance is also inscribed:  “May the Lord bless your entrance and your departure”, a blessing to frame any student’s years of education here.  On their day of graduation Graduates often have their photograph taken as they walk out under that arch into the challenges that await them in the post-graduation world.  Jesus Christ blesses their departure.

 

If a student here you might be more familiar with another use of that key word cornerstone that Jesus utters.    Most students here are engaged in some way in the Cornerstone Course Requirements, the Cornerstone Core Curriculum that helps provide the human formation for the life that lies ahead, that life of men and women for and with others.   Our messy world of disregard in so many ways for the dignity of life and for the integrity of the natural world needs the service of our students.

 

The person of Jesus Christ supports our Church and our University,   His preaching of love of God and love of Neighbor guides us every day, even when we need reconciliation.   May we build our own lives recognizing Jesus as our personal cornerstone supporting and inspiring our faith, hope and love.

 

And, remember, too, that in our prayers with Jesus, he will listen to us even when we are whining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

25^th Sun Ord Time SJU 2026  (Golden Hawks Mass  9/20)

 

In general I celebrate a public Mass every Sunday, sometimes with young audiences, sometimes with families, sometimes in religious communities.   Despite the culture or age group, I never change the readings that the Church has assigned for that particular Sunday.    I preach about them, even those not suited for a given congregation.  We play it as it lies.      But today the readings assigned for the Sunday Mass are quite fitting for a group of us who are experiencing the mature years.   In fact it is hard to imagine more fitting readings for the Golden Hawks, and for us other golden agers.   

These selections from Scripture address some of my complaints over the years.   As I grew older, for example, I started to complain to Jesus Christ himself.   Yes, God in him experienced human life and terrible sufferings, too.   But God in Jesus Christ does not know what a mature human life is like; God in Jesus Christ does not know what growing old is like.   Sometimes I complain about this but some of God’s general responses are in the readings today.

In the first reading from the Book of Isaiah, for example, I quote: My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.  (repeat)  God has clear words here for us Golden Agers:  The Father of Jesus says, “Jesus could not do everything in human experience.   For you Golden Agers I have chosen a longer life so that you can help me understand what a longer life is like.”   Yes, many of us in the chapel today are helping God understand mature human life, filling up what was missing in Jesus’ life.

And in the second reading the apostle Paul in his own mature years, addresses his friends in the community in Philippi with these words: that I (Paul) remain in the flesh rather than die in Christ is more necessary for your benefit. (repeat) We can imitate Paul and address our families and friends this same way.   We seniors remain in the flesh for their benefit.  Christ choses us to grow old for the benefit of others.

And finally our gospel reading: here Jesus tells the surprising story of the generous landowner who on a certain day pays each of his day workers the same standard daily wage.   It matters not whether they started work early in the day expecting the standard daily wage or came late and only worked for an hour or so.  When those who worked all day saw the standard daily wage given to those joining in the work only in the last hour, they complained.  Who would not?    So Jesus ends the story with the question that the landowner asks the complainers who worked all day:  ‘Are you envious because I am generous?'  (repeat)   Yes, not only are they envious, they are angry at being treated like fools for getting up early.

We Jesuits still surviving from my large first novitiate class in the Jesuits, are only a small number, now surviving 67 years.  The first of these Jesuit colleagues to die was a young priest teaching at St. Joseph’s Prep in 1974, Bill Moody.   A tragic loss.   Now I think of him as having at least an extra 52 years of heaven that I will never have.   Not that it makes much difference in the timeless kingdom of heaven.   But sometimes I am envious and sometimes can get more so as more of my friends reach heaven.          God, however, is generous either way.   All divine gifts: some present Bill with 52 years of heavenly life and some present me with 52 years of human life.    And I have a sense that Bill is among the first to pray for me and our Jesuit mission here in Philadelphia.  Let us remember God’s words in our first reading: My ways are not your ways.

So the message is clear for all of us: God has a plan for us that might change the way we plan for ourselves.    God always for us has in mind lives that have the potential for love and care of others.  And finally whatever our measure of evaluating the gifts that we have received, each of us is the product of God’s specific generosity for us.          

This gospel of God’s generosity reminds me of the final scenes of the Evelyn Waugh novel, “Brideshead Revisited”, memorable also as a movie.   In those scenes the patriarch of a wealthy English Catholic family accepts the sacraments on his death bed after a faithless life of lax living.   When asked by a priest at his bedside if he wants to receive the sacraments, the barely conscious man struggles and dramatically makes the sign of the cross.  His unexpected pious death rekindles faith in his daughter and the novel ends with a visitor to the mansion finding a prayerful peace while praying quietly in the mansion’s Catholic chapel.

This story comes into my mind because I knew a nun who also read the novel but she was scandalized that any author should think that God would welcome this sinful man into heaven.   I rephrased for her the sentence from today’s gospel:   “Are you jealous because God was generous to this man who had not born the heat of the day?”

Whatever our personal circumstances, it is clear that after 175 years our University will continue to bear the heat of the day staying alert to the different needs of our community.  Of most importance to us as a Catholic University has been the development of Catholic Social Teaching since the publication of the encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891.   This teaching has encouraged our contributions to the common good.    Grandly now, of course, SJU provides a professional education for women and for minorities and the underserved.   And in smaller matters:  In 1851 who would have thought that a group of students preparing for medical careers would often walk the streets of Kensington to treat the skin wounds of the addicted?   Who would have thought that students considering teaching careers with the neurodivergent would have face to face opportunities to learn directly in service with autistic children?    Who would have thought that student-led groups would take the opportunity to pray on the streets of Philadelphia at an abortion clinic or an immigration office?   And in the sphere or worship: Who would have thought that what was rare in 1851, that is, receiving communion at Mass, is now normal each day for students in the University chapel?  

And more generally: Who would have predicted that St. Joseph’s would have an Institute studying business ethics now in an age when the practice of justice is an essential addition to our faith?    Or an Institute dedicated to a dialogue of Jewish and Catholic scholars in the spirit of a 1965 Vatican document, a document that would have provoked a general backlash among the Jesuits of 1851?  And while it is likely that many of the students in those first University classes served in the military during the Civil War, still who would have predicted our own Air Force ROTC program preparing students for leadership in the Air Force.   And this while also the University offers plenty of support for the education of Veterans.   Yes, our University continues to bear the heat of the day, pharmacy, many health care programs, leadership programs especially for women, the list goes on.

Just as St. Paul spoke about himself, we can speak of our University: That St. Joseph’s University remains in the flesh rather than dies in Christ is more necessary for the common good.   Always!  Forward!  Ad multos annos!

 

 

 

   23rd Sunday  Old St. Joseph's   Sept 6, 2026   

 When Jesus gathers his followers around him, very often his discussions with them are about real every-day situations.   Healing on the Sabbath, duties as sons and daughters toward parents, diet restrictions, the stance toward women caught in adultery.   And here in today’s gospel Jesus gives us some very wise directions about how to deal with very common and often quite disturbing experiences, the divisions and dissensions that so frequently upset our family life, our work life or our community lives.

Jesus theme today and every day: Reconciliation, bringing persons back together again.   Indeed, reconciling us with his Father in heaven.

The sort of dissension in the example that Jesus uses occurs because one person hurts another with words or actions.   Often, yes, an innocent person is mistreated by another.   Sometimes, however, it takes two to tango.   I remember an incident in my own life when I was teaching in high school.   I was arranging with another teacher a program for a small group of students.  One of them misbehaved in some minor way and my fellow teacher decided that this student did not belong in this program and put him out.   I disagreed with his decision and started yelling at him judging his authority to dismiss the kid.   Jesus asks us to be more judicious.  Yelling was not the best start to reconciliation.    Two offenders here.  

For an offender we are to follow a careful path in seeking reconciliation. Jesus describes three successive strategies to address someone who has offended us.    First, yes, we ask the person to listen to us one-on-one.   Our words must be chosen judiciously and yelling  practically guarantees the need to go to Jesus’ second step.   If one-on-one fails, then Jesus tells us that the discussion between the parties demands some third party to help clarify all the facts of the disagreement.    In my case with my co-teacher this process with a third party brought about an acceptable reconciliation.   We were able to work together even though more time was needed to establish real trust. 

But Jesus also speaks quite wisely about a third step if needed.   That is a broader attempt at reconciliation within a community of people.  Here he speaks of the church, both the office of authority in the church but also the culture of the church community.

In my own example Jesus third step to reconciliation contributed to the establishment of full trust as the relationship was repaired within our daily actions in the broader school community.   So one, two, three:  first reconciliation one-on-one if possible, second with one or two others as witnesses and mediators and third within a community of common purpose.

No one of these three steps to reconciliation, some commentators suggest, can succeed without some basic realization among the parties of the dignity of the other.   Just the other day I was at lunch with a friend who brought a friend with him to the table, a person I did not know.   They related how they had met.   Both were antique and household item dealers who set up their folding tables in flea markets.   Habitually the one I knew took a certain space at a certain weekly market.  But when my friend arrived a little late one morning, another dealer, this one new to the place and unaware of the usual set up had taken what was regularly the space of the one who arrived late.   After a bit of arguing my friend who was harmed suggested a solution.   They rearranged the space so that they each had their separate tables side by side.      They told me the story with smiles because the two of them have been fast friends since that day.  Their common interests, their respect for one another helped them understand the need to agree to a suitable solution.  Each of them honored the role of the other.   Life, sadly, does not always unfold this way.

Family divisions are the ones that most trouble us.   In my own family, my older sister and her husband were together raising five children with lots of happiness until my brother-in-law decided to leave the household and live with another woman.   It shocked the family and deeply troubled the three of the children still living at home.   Fast forward: the marriage was annulled and their father married again.   Fast forward again and a tragedy struck the family, the oldest among my nieces in the family, Lisa, suffered a terrible illness.  It was devastating for some time and she died from it.

Father and mother had to deal with all the complications of care.  This Lisa, in her suffering, became an example of the third party about whom Jesus speaks.   Love shared for her brought the family together.  Since this time and Lisa’s death they all have celebrated family events together.  In no way could they continue alienated. Their reconciliation honors Lisa.

Jesus not only gives instructions on steps to bring about reconciliation, his whole life and death is the work of reconciling all of humanity to his Father.  His execution by the Temple authorities is so appalling that it forces us to see the evil in ourselves and in humanity, forces us to join together to find ways to prevent such sins of all kinds.

Finally Jesus himself practices in his own daily life some such tactics of reconciliation among the disciples.  We remember how James and John privately seek the support of Jesus so that they can get the best seats in the coming kingdom of God.   Jesus makes no promises but simply asks them to follow in his own footsteps.    But the other disciples find out about the self-promotion of James and John.   And want to isolate them from companionship with them.   Here Jesus steps in to suggest better ways for all the disciples to create community among themselves and reconcile their differences.   They are to do this not be lording over each other but rather by serving one another.   Jesus with such a suggestion takes on the role of that third party who assists in reconciling in the midst of dissension.  

Some hostilities between people seem hard to crack, of course, but well it is to practice what Jesus preaches even in situations which seem most difficult.   Simply put, as hard as it can be, let us find ways of serving those from whom we are alienated.  Such acts honor the dignity of both parties.

 

 

                                                                  Get behind me, Satan

22^nd Sun in Ord Time   SJU Aug 30

Who is this Jeremiah, this Old Testament prophet who complains telling God how ruthlessly God is treating him? “You duped me, overwhelmed me.  And because you force me to speak the truth about your people’s corruption, I am mocked and scorned in the public square.   And it is your fault.   But it exhausts me to keep silent.”

Lots of complaints to God but he continues to answer his call.   He engages in condemning the Jewish leadership for forty years or so until they are hauled off to Babylonia.   He himself accompanies a group of Jews who flee to Egypt and there is a widespread belief that he dies at their hands some years later.

Yes, a classic complainer.  Most of us complain to God about something or other.  I am happy, for example, to know that the Son of God came in Jesus Christ to experience our human life.    But then I complain that Jesus died young and really doesn’t know about the experience of a full human life into the mature years.   And I get the answer from Jesus that fits many of us here.   “You are among those called to live a long life.  You have been chosen to fulfill what I was unable to experience.”   Yes, I hear that encouragement. But, then, I do think of one of the Jesuits ordained with me on the same day years ago.   He died suddenly just two years after our ordination, a terrible loss.   Now that blessed guy, however, has 50 years of heaven under his belt, 50 more years than I will ever have.   But I shouldn’t complain. Indeed some of us ask him for graces from time to time and I believe he helps us.

Now there are, of course, in the public media many Catholic voices these days who earn the right to really complain just like Jeremiah.    They encounter ugliness and hate speech on the social networks, even sometimes threats to their lives.   Bishop Robert Barron believes that there are people who actually work hard to discredit him by using AI to create a huge community of detractors.   Pope Francis and Jesuit Jim Martin encounter similar reactions.  As these men deliver the Word of the Lord, they can easily complain like Jeremiah that it “brings them derision and reproach all the day.”

But let’s turn now to our third reading, the gospel reading today.   I want to look at it because it features Jesus with a personal complaint directed to one of his disciples.  Jesus is so upset that he curses his follower, the disciple Peter who later becomes the one we recognize as the first Pope.   We remind ourselves about the context of this surprising curse: that is, for already a year or two Jesus has been leading the disciples as they join in preaching about the coming kingdom of God.   Apparently, like many others in the day, Peter expected this kingdom of God to be led by a triumphant Messiah whose reign would bring unparalleled strength and integrity to Israel.   Finally, however, Jesus decides to mince no words and he tells his disciples about the suffering and death that he will endure under the Temple leadership.

Peter is absolutely incredulous and, though still fresh from calling Jesus the Messiah, boldly contradicts Jesus:   “Suffering and death!  No such thing will ever happen to you.”  But Jesus turns his back to Peter and rebukes him naming Peter with the name of his own deadly enemy:  “Get behind me, Satan.  You don’t know anything about how God thinks.”   These words of Jesus, “Get behind me, Satan”, remind us of similar words he used when, much earlier before he begins his mission, he himself is in the wilderness and tempted by the devil.   There he dismisses the devil with these words: “Begone, Satan.”   His use of a strikingly similar phrase with Peter indicates that Peter’s remark is a troubling reminder to Jesus of the temptations in the wilderness.   Peter must be defiantly dismissed.

This flash of temper from Jesus seems to me to be a sign of how troublesome the future appears even to him.   Indeed, later right before the arrest of Jesus, Matthew writes about him in the Garden of Gethsemane with these words: “Anguish and distress came over him.”  Here, however, after dismissing Peter, Jesus collects himself and immediately finds the voice with which his Father blesses him.   He realizes here and now that he has not instructed the disciples very well about how the Father has planned the life of his Son and how they, too, hearing about this plan, are to act.   Yes, the two great commandments are love of God and love of neighbor.  But their practice will demand from those who follow Jesus a radical kind of love.   So immediately Jesus uses this occasion after his striking rebuke of Peter to tell his followers the whole truth, a part of which we just read.           "Those who wish to come after me must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.  For those who  wish to save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for my sake will find them.” 

Matthew records here no questions or comments from the disciples even though they have just been directed to die to themselves. Really!  Surely some of them must have wondered what this meant?  Were they going to face crucifixion, too?     Some one of them must have thought about Jesus's first instruction to them, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand”.    Is this death to self the essence of repenting and accepting the Kingdom of God?

Yes, I would love to hear how the disciples talked among themselves or with Jesus. What did they think about finding life through death to self for his sake.   But absent their comments, let us all think of our own approaches:

There are, of course, quite graphic examples of people who died to themselves just as Jesus did: Jean Donovan, Maryknoll lay missionary: though easily destined for a very comfortable life, instead was brutally murdered in El Salvador in 1980, because she loved and served the poor.  

But death to self happens in a great variety of ways:  I think of a very successful and gifted older man whose days off were usually spent on the golf course.    But after his retirement his wife was severely struck by Alzheimer’s disease.   For a year or two He spent the major part of each day at her nursing home bedside, she never once able to acknowledge him as someone she knew. 

 I pray for the help of Jean Donovan and my friend, the golfer.  We are called to join them and die to ourselves every day.   Dying to our laziness, dying to our doubt and cynicism, dying to our pride, dying to our self-pity, and, along those lines of self-pity, of course, dying to public complaints about personal things big and small.   If we lose our lives for the sake of Christ, we will surely find them.

 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time     Matthew 16: 13 - 20

Matthew 16: 13-20       Matthew’s gospel account now has come to the middle chapters.   They are a turning point after Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and after journeys with his disciples on a mission of healing and public teaching.   In these chapters the Pharisees challenge many of the things that Jesus promotes.  Among them healing on the Sabbath and less strictures about diet and about rules of cleanliness.   Then news comes that John the Baptist has been brutally killed by Herod.                

Here Jesus knows he must reveal himself more directly to the men and women who have joined him in his teaching and healing.   So he feeds the five thousand.   So walking on the water he appears to the disciples.   So he drives out demons.  And today we hear him make his own identity clear to his followers and in this action he declares also who his followers are called to be.   He does this with a general question about the Son of Man, the one mentioned in so many of the Hebrew Scriptures who will free Israel from the prison of their sins and their oppressors.   Jesus asks his followers, “Who is the Son of Man?”   And they suggest some names, not one of them fully convincing.   The answers do not reflect any strong opinions.   The great prophets are all dead and now even the Baptist is dead.  

Jesus limits the discussion by asking the follow-up most important question: who do you say that I am?  Here Peter makes a more complete statement of faith than what seems possible at this point in the story of Jesus:  “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”   Somehow the evangelist Matthew cannot wait to get the truth out on the table.                         

And also at the same time, Matthew lets us know how persons who proclaim such an identity for Jesus are now to be identified.    All those who proclaim Jesus as the Messiah become “rocks” and creators of community for those who are ignorant or confused, afraid or indifferent.  Jesus’s interrogation is a moment of revelation not only about him but also about those whose imaginations move them to proclamations about him.          

The exchange reminds me of an exercise that a teacher of adolescents suggested for them.   “Take the sentence “I am imaginary and not real.”    Repeat it and then add a description that further describes yourself.”   One lad said.   “I am imaginary and not real.   I am courageous and not afraid.”   A girl said, “I am imaginary and not real.   I sing and dance and don’t sulk.” 

Using this model Jesus might repeat what Peter says:   “I am imaginary and not real.  I am the Messiah, the Son of God and not a failed teacher.”   For Jesus the aspiration as Messiah breaks into reality.             What do I say:  “I am imaginary and not real.  I am a human being dignified in God’s creation, even a “rock” and not simply sore and stiff and tired with life.”   Let’s all take a moment and fill in a sentence to complete “I am imaginary and not real.”