HOMILY FOR THE 22ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY YEAR A.
THEME: IS JESUS YOUR FRIEND!
BY: Fr. Augustine Ikechukwu Opara
(JER 20:7-9, ROM 12:1-2, MATT 16:21-27)
Today’s Readings strike a somber note. Jesus, whose true identity Simon Peter has just acknowledged (‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God’), goes on to make the first of three announcements concerning his destiny to suffer and die.
The resistance, submission, and ordeal of Jeremiah, tells us that nothing can prevent the mission of God, not even our resistance. In the second reading, Paul calls us to submit completely to God without resistance and reservation. To present our bodies is to submit our faculties, and the totality of our being. It is total surrender to God. This total surrender is essential to a life of righteousness, joy, peace, and victory in Christ. In today’s gospel, we see the irony of life. The same Peter who proclaimed that Christ is the Messiah last week, is today rebuked as “Satan.” Christ simply rebuked him for being an obstacle to his mission. This shows that though, Peter professed that Christ is the Messiah (as God revealed it to him), yet, he has not fully understood the nature of Christ’s mission.
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Peter is not ‘rock’ because of personal qualities of steadfastness or reliability. This also teaches us that we are all vulnerable to making mistakes and failing, no matter how spiritual we are. So, this calls for taking seriously, the admonition of Paul: “Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he falls” (1 Cor 10:12). The fact that the so recently exalted Peter had so much difficulty with it and even that Jesus had difficulty with it should be for us all a source of comfort. Both Peter’s remonstrance and Jeremiah’s complaint will often echo in our hearts in the daily struggle to go with Jesus along the costly prophetic way.
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It’s not the way it was, because God Himself has come down to heal us. And more than heal us, but to take possession of our arms and legs and our voices and the things we do and even our weaknesses, so that the world may finally begin to understand there are only two realities in life for any human being. And do we fail? The Bible says a good person fails seven times a day (Prov. 24:16). But we do not really fail fail, for to fail fail, as Mother Theresa says, is the great failure when you fall, and you never get up again. But Jesus is with us and each time we fall he lifts us up and says, “Come with me, for we have two purposes in life: one is to love, and one is to serve.”
Those who selfishly use other people instead of seeking their authentic good rarely tell them hard truths. It’s too risky. Pointing out their failings may result in offense and rejection – like the parents who are afraid to discipline their child. However, love will take the risk, because love always goes after what is best for the beloved. A true friend will tell you when you’re wrong, so that you can straighten out. Christ is a true friend, and he shows it in this conversation with St Peter. Jeremiah was a preview of Jesus. Jesus loves us too much to hide the hard truths – even if he knows that we don’t always want to hear them. Jesus loves us so much to put his own comfort ahead of our spiritual and moral well-being.
But we should also ask ourselves a difficult question. What kind of friend are we being to Jesus? Jesus cares about this; he doesn’t want a one-way relationship. There are at least two ways we can check up on this. First, are we honest with him in prayer? (Remember the old song ‘what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grief to bear, what a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh what needles pain we bear. all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer’). Second, are we courageous about speaking the hard truths to others? That is reaching out to your buddy who is struggling with temptation and helping him make the right decision.
My brothers and sisters, the best way to thank our Lord for being such a faithful friend to us is to be a faithful friend to him in return.
God bless you!
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