I am borrowing this wonderful pic for a few days. It comes from an Irish website, where there is also a very good commentary on the Sunday Readings every week:
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time A
August 28, 2011
Responsorial Psalm: 63:2,3-4,5-6,8-9
We are at a turning point in the gospel narrative. Time is running out. These months in Galilee, teaching the new way, stirring the people to want the change, gaining their confidence with some signs and wonders: soon it will be time to tackle the city. But first, a survey.
He asks the apostles: "Who do they think I am? What are you hearing?" - "Some say you're John! But some say Elijah, Jeremiah – one of the prophets."
"That's good. At least they're taking it seriously. What about you?"
Peter did not, I think, burst out emotionally with his famous confession of faith. Hesitantly, because this was really too much and he would be laughed at: "We... we think... you are the messiah."
"That's good too," says Jesus. "Peter, you know this because the Father in heaven reveals it to you deep inside. You will learn to trust those inner convictions, the light in your mind..."
"But keep this among yourselves. Don't talk about it outside this circle, because if people start talking about the messiah, the authorities will come down on us like a ton of bricks and it will be all over. It's not the time yet."
Then he began to prepare his disciples for what lay ahead. Obviously he could not stay here, teaching the country folk and having picnics by the lake. Soon he would have to go up to the city, and he knew he wouldn't last a week there. If he spoke the truth in Jerusalem, first they would harass the people and ridicule him, then they would destroy his reputation and finally they would shut him up by killing him. The disciples had to become aware of this so they would be ready for it, but this first mention is just a beginning, a general suggestion to get them thinking.
Peter took on the role of caring friend - with denial: "No, don't think like that. We won't let that happen. We'll find safe houses for you to stay in, and if it gets too hot we'll work out ways to get you out of the city."
"Don't tempt me," said Jesus. "Yes, what you suggest is tempting, but that's not the way. The truth has to be said, and openly. In the end we have to stand up for the truth."
The next lines are central to the gospel, but they are so cryptic their meaning is hidden. The language is like an SMS. “If anyone would come after me let him deny himself...”
If you're going to live my way: What is 'my way'? It has been spelt out in the Sermon on the Mount and illustrated on every page. It is the way of truth, honesty, integrity, justice, fairness, openness, simplicity, truth. It rejects compromise, insinuation, weedling, bullying, and the cover-up that friends do for friends when they try to persuade them that it won't be so bad, you're not that drunk, it doesn't really matter, everything will be okay if we stick together, and: It will go away if we don't talk about it.
If you are going to live my way you have to be straight, open, honest and true.
That means you've got to lose the self. (This may include 'death to the ego' but it is much more simple than a psychologist might suspect.) It means lose the self-interest, lose the self-preservation, lose the self-importance, lose the self-loathing. It does not mean forego common sense, ordinary care for oneself and one's family, friends, etc. Life is to be lived. (The term, 'self denial' has come to mean emptying out the self to create a hollowman, a creepy non-person.) It means what every parent does in the course of bringing up children.
And follow me: my mission is to witness to the truth, to expose the cover-ups, to confront hypocrisy, to reject the lies and kant of those in power, to un-cover the truth, for the truth will set you free.
“You have conned me, Lord, and I've let myself be conned! And now you've got me.”
Most christians feel
the way Jeremiah felt, and with more reason for the con has been
going on for centuries. Ever since Constantine left an empty seat of
empire for a pope to fill. Then came the monasteries, the
biggest con of all. The monastic way of life came to be seen as the
best, the ultimate, the standard way of following Jesus. Amazing!
They take a vow of poverty and never know insecurity, let alone any
kind of want. They vow themselves to obedience and are forever free
of risk and responsibility. They vow their celibacy, and call
community their family where they practice fraternal charity and
never learn to love. That became the model of the way of Jesus to the
whole church, their standards were taught as everyone's morality, and
since Trent their life was to be the life of every priest in every
isolated parish. Today there is too much talk, too many words in
defence of the tradition, of what has been the accepted way.
The truth is that it is nothing like the way of Jesus.
Jesus was not a member of the Essene community at Qumran. He was not an emaciated ascetic. He lived, worked, talked and taught among the people, and he was arrested and tried without any protection or privilege. He was a common man.
Take up his cross: as
everyone knows and every commentator affirms, this means accept the troubles and pains that come
your way. Is that all? Is that the cross that Jesus was about to take
up – or is his real cross only for him while we just have to bear our
lives with patience and fortitude. The challenge Jesus faced
was to go up to Jerusalem and speak the truth in front of the
powerful who needed most to hear it. What is the cross in front of me
today? What festering wound of covered up deceit is demanding to be
uncovered? What hidden corruption is white-anting the structure of my
life, of my family, community, parish, town or nation? What can I do
about it?
That troubling problem is my cross. Start talking.
P.S. re the con of monastic life: I've spent 40 years in that life and loved it. But from day one we used to joke about the anomalies of poverty and obedience, and then we spent our whole lives straining to touch reality. I know many very admirable and heroic men and women living good lives in religious communities, and I love not a few. So I am not knocking the people, any more than Jesus was making personal attacks on the pharisees. But the system is not what the gospel portrays as the way of Jesus, and the gold standard of truth and integrity is more likely to be found in the main street than in the cloister or the sanctuary.
[img]http://www.catholica.com.au/sunday/images/Y-not_an_640x166.gif[/img]