“Lose and Love Are Intertwined” by Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)
Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 431
Piety
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. I Corinthians 2:4-5
Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah…When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away. (Luke 4:16-17, 28-30)
Study
In the book, How to Disappear, there are true stories of real people who faked their deaths to collect on life insurance policies or to start over. To catch them, people hire special investigators. The book says many get caught by doing things like visiting their mother. Or, they chose a new name that is very similar to their old name. Or, they Google themselves a lot.
A private investigator from New York named Steven Rambam says, “People do a remarkably limited amount of planning when it comes to faking their deaths. Faking your death is a full-time job, and I can guarantee you that if you slip up with even the slightest sign of life, we will find you.”
The Gospels this week indeed point out that following Christ also is a full-time job. Yet, without planning, the temptations of the world will slip us up.
As we began the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time, the Sunday readings set the tone for our week. As faithful followers, the lessons encourage us to “love one another.” Ezekiel tells us that we are responsible for each other, and Paul’s letter to the Romans offers: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.” In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells us to challenge each other on our behavior and to pray, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
In Luke’s Gospel this week, we see how Jesus spends a night in prayer and calls his twelve closest followers. When people come to him from all over, he heals them. Jesus announces that the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those hated or excluded or denounced because of him are blessed. He warns those who are rich, filled, laughing, and spoken well of, for fate will reverse their destinies as foretold in the Magnificat. He cautions not to be too quick to see the splinter in someone else’s eye when we do not notice the “wooden beam” in our own eyes. Jesus says that our fruits reveal our identity. Only by building our lives upon Jesus as a firm foundation can we hope to survive crises.
Today, Luke starts off the weekdays with a reading and homily Jesus presents that the people reject.
1. Speaking of no signs of life, sin and worldly passions are to be put to death by the Cross. Not even the slightest sign of life.
Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…”
Dead to glittering temptations that are fake.
When do I place the world’s values above God’s commandments?
Pope Pius XI: “A plain cross has no blood and no nail holes - it has no trace of suffering… When a cross is plain, we are deprived of seeing this truth...we are deprived of being reminded of how much God loves us and how He has proved his Love...we are deprived from the comforts of seeing this, and we may turn in towards ourselves rather than to our Crucified Lord.”
Mary Hinkle talked about the dangers of forgetting about the Cross: “I was recently part of a small focus group that offered feedback on a newly designed website for the seminary where I teach. We talked for a while about the colors, the graphics, the menus, and submenus, and then one of the group members said, “Nowhere on these pages is there a Cross.”
She was right.
I was surprised, but even more stunned and chastened by the realization that I had not even noticed its absence.
I wondered what else we were not clearly saying, “Look, you need to know this man died. He was tortured and executed. It was awful.”[i]
Peter had wanted a Messiah who could miraculously change the military, economic, and political situation of Israel. He initially could not accept how our Gospel today begins with Matthew 16:21, “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly.”
Jesus St. Faustina: “There is but one price at which souls are bought, and that is suffering united to My suffering on the Cross. Pure Love understands these words; Carnal Love will never understand them.” (324).
To live involves suffering, but surviving means a person must find meaning in that sufferings. We can offer up our moments of suffering to save a soul.
The Good News is that Peter taught the Church to cherish the message of Christ’s death and so not be frightened by it.
The cruel passion that Jesus foretells shares an integral relationship with the good news of the kingdom of God that Jesus has announced that new eternal life follows.
Lastly, we hear in our Gospel today something you could only say to a really good friend: “Get behind me, Satan.”
Jesus isn’t saying that Peter is evil incarnate.
Peter is an obstacle.
He is standing between Jesus and God’s plan because Peter was rebelling against suffering like Jeremiah’s outburst in our First Reading, “You Duped me O LORD.”
You played a trick on me.
God sent Jeremiah to announce that the Kingdom of Judah would be taken captive, and they shackle him in the stockade for his warning.
“Circumstances” comes from two Latin words: circum, “around,” and sta’re, “to stand.” Circumstances place an obstacle between me and my acceptance of the grace of God in the present moment.
In times of troubling circumstances, surrender. Peter got rebuked by Jesus because Peter was demonstrating his need to “over control” pretty much everything in life, even God when he just needed to yield to God’s saving plan.
Our Lord teaches us today, “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus entwines “Lose” and “Love” Lose: substitute a “v” for the “s” and it spells Love. Amen.
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