TWENTY-SECOND OF YEAR "A"

TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY OF YEAR  I

“The Son of Man must first suffer”

Think of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She was considered among the most admired women in the world. But all her beauty, elegance and wealth could not save her from a disfiguring cancer and ugly death. Think also of the beautiful Princess Diana who died disfigured in a car accident. Obviously, all of their abundant gifts were not free of cost. They came with a hidden price tag. But if it was true for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, it was even more true for Jesus the Nazarene. A certain author, Daniel Durken, said, “How much easier and nicer it would have been, if Jesus could have continued to tell pithy parables, heal the sick, go fishing with his friends, and pray a lot.” But it was not to be.  The down days were fast approaching.

Today’s Gospel points up a much forgotten Christian truth.  It would not be off the mark to say it is one that we deliberately want to forget. We enter here the strange, but all too familiar, psychological world of denial. I would like to remind you that Jesus’ prediction of his approaching suffering comes immediately after one of the glory points of his life. Shortly before this Gospel opens, Peter told him, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” That unqualified Credo made his otherwise gloomy day. So again I remind you that each time Jesus tasted a victory, he immediately telegraphed the information that he would soon be given a bill for that victory, a heavy bill. Think of his splendid Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor. There he enjoys one of the high points of his life. His face shines like a million suns, his clothes whiter than snow. And as he comes down from the mountain, you think he’s getting away with it; but then the waiter presents the bill, and he really came down. “Tell no one”, says our Leader to his friends, “what you have seen...for the Son of Man must first suffer.”  The Master says that those of us who are tasting happiness in the here and now must also be prepared for adversities waiting down the road for us; like in the words of the old song, “I beg your pardon; I never promised you a rose garden.”

Quite understandably, every one of us is anxious to receive favours from God. But if we take the life of Christ as a guide plan, divine favours come in attractive packets tied with a coloured ribbon at end of which hangs a cross. Look at history. Beneath the dry earth of Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C. you can find the bones of the brothers Kennedy, John F. and Robert.  The President and his Senator brother were given positions of power that made them world-class. Yet, both of them were felled by the cold bullets of amateur assassins. Consider Pope John Paul II. An obscure Cardinal from Poland is elected successor of St. Peter. Wherever he went, thousands shouted “Viva il Papa.” Then the waiter appears with a bill on a tray. Two bullets from a Browning 9 millimetre automatic almost end his life, and ruin his health till the end of it.

We should memorise the lesson of this Gospel. If it applies to the giants of our culture; why? If it applies to our dear Lord himself, why would we think that suffering would pass us by?  Even in the spiritual life, there is no such thing as a free lunch. God’s way goes against the way of our natural instinct. To gain life we must lose it. To be filled we must be emptied. To gain the world we must lose it.

Happily, though, this grim tale is not concluded. We must not snap shut the book until the last chapter is read. In those last pages, we discover the happy ending that every one of us so desperately wants and perhaps needs.  Remember Mt. Tabor. True enough Jesus spoke of his suffering immediately after his Transfiguration. But he also said: “Tell no one what you have seen until I have risen from the dead.”  So the formula would appear to be: glory, death, and resurrection.  Death then gives over to absolute victory.

Naturally enough, we would like to alter that plan of action. Were we drawing up the game plan, we would eliminate the suffering part and just bring on the glory train. We’d like to identify with Peter in today’s gospel. When the Christ foretells he is going to suffer, Peter shoots off his mouth: “Heaven preserve you, Lord. This must not happen to you.” The Master, who, of course, wrote the original script, slaps Peter down not with a whimper but with a bang. The Nazarene is reminding Peter that he, and not Peter, is the playwright.

From Mathew’s Gospel the image of Peter emerges of a scarred, sinful man who has committed the worst sin in the early Church; he was guilty of apostasy and the denial of Christ. Even before this Jesus had called him “Satan” and a “stumbling block”. He was the very antithesis of a superstar. He was the humble, repentant man whose leadership could be trusted precisely because his failures were so well known. Peter could never have had an inflated opinion of himself because of his public sin and failure. The early Church was only too aware of the dangers of power and clericalism. What kind of pope and bishops does the Church need today? It needs a person whose humanity has been formed through suffering, pain, sin, confession of sin and reconciliation; whose attitudes have been shaped more by the experience of Christian living than by ideology or status or self-importance; someone who can encourage the abilities and gifts of others; who can build bridges within the Church and with other Churches.

 We are but the actors who move about on the stage for a while and then watch the curtain fall. If we are clever, we will recite our assigned lines correctly; and we will resist the temptation to get in a few lines of our own past the Director. Hopefully, then, all of us will win a warm embrace from Jesus, Son of God, at the end of the play.

 

PRAYER:  Lord Jesus, help me to accept the truth of your Gospel and be transformed by the renewal of my mind, so that I may understand and be consoled by the presence and operation of your glorious Resurrection in my suffering, helplessness. I give you glory for my baptism, your passion and Resurrection.