The Culture of the Cross
August 31, 2008, 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time
Jeremiah 20:7-9 Romans 12:1-2 Matthew 16:21-27
To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a temple not built by human hands[2]
Second reading from Rom: 12:1-2
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living sacrifice, holy – the kind He can accept. When you think of what He has done for us, is this too much to ask? Don’t fall in line with the world’s way of thinking, but be a new kind of person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how His ways will really satisfy you.
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (16:21-27)
Glory to you, Lord.
Thanks be to God
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (16:21-27)
Glory to you, Lord.
From that time on, Jesus began to speak plainly to his disciples, “I must go to Jerusalem and suffer from the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. I will be put to death, and on the third day I will be raised to life.” Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to scold him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing like that shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You think not as God does but as the world thinks.”Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, carry his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Introduction
Labor Day 2008
Labor Day 2008
The Nation’s yearly liturgy began with Memorial Day honoring our war dead. It peaked with the fiery displays of the Fourth of July celebrating our independence. And now it tapers off with the Labor Day Weekend as all try to get in one last lick at summer before settling down in earnest to school and to work. The national liturgy ends finally with Thanksgiving Day (that mother of all national feasts) when over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go to give thanks. After that, the Church’s liturgy takes over with Advent in preparation for Christmas 2008.
The days of the year are rolling. Here it is the last day of August, and tomorrow, September 1, 2008, is Labor Day. It’s a definite turning point in the North as the very first signs of fall begin to appear. Driving along a country road these days we’ll suddenly come upon spotty swaths of gold and red on a herd of maple trees grazing on a hillside. Soon we’ll be breathing in cool wafts of autumn air streaming through opened windows at night, as we lie cozily under an added blanket and listen to crickets singing of summer spent.
Soon the fruits of the harvest will be gathered into bins, and a few old timers will still be preserving the bounty of fall in canning jars for the scarcity of winter. Lined up on shelves in fruit cellars and showing off their colorful beauty the jars of preserves used to radiate a sense of bounty and security for the sparse winter months ahead.
Back then, canning was a kind of sacred liturgy which doesn’t happened anymore in an economy where food comes from the showy shelves of supermarket and not from farmers’ fields. Such liturgy was good for the human spirit, but most people are so busy now making a living they don’t have time for it anymore. On Labor Day, as we set ourselves again in earnest to the task of making a living, we remind ourselves there’s an important difference between making a living and living.
The days of the year are rolling. Here it is the last day of August, and tomorrow, September 1, 2008, is Labor Day. It’s a definite turning point in the North as the very first signs of fall begin to appear. Driving along a country road these days we’ll suddenly come upon spotty swaths of gold and red on a herd of maple trees grazing on a hillside. Soon we’ll be breathing in cool wafts of autumn air streaming through opened windows at night, as we lie cozily under an added blanket and listen to crickets singing of summer spent.
Soon the fruits of the harvest will be gathered into bins, and a few old timers will still be preserving the bounty of fall in canning jars for the scarcity of winter. Lined up on shelves in fruit cellars and showing off their colorful beauty the jars of preserves used to radiate a sense of bounty and security for the sparse winter months ahead.
Back then, canning was a kind of sacred liturgy which doesn’t happened anymore in an economy where food comes from the showy shelves of supermarket and not from farmers’ fields. Such liturgy was good for the human spirit, but most people are so busy now making a living they don’t have time for it anymore. On Labor Day, as we set ourselves again in earnest to the task of making a living, we remind ourselves there’s an important difference between making a living and living.
Peter’s problem
With that nod to Labor Day, we turn to the scriptures assigned for this 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. After Peter proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus tells the disciples what it means to be the Messiah: He will be rejected by the religious establishment, killed, and after three days rise from the dead. That becomes a big problem for Peter. He does, indeed, believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but his idea of Messiah bears cultural and religious images of conqueror, warrior, victor and king.
When Jesus puts Peter straight about the Messiah as one who will suffer, die and be resurrected, Peter freaks out. He grabs Jesus by the arm and pulls him off to the side to straighten out His way of thinking. Visualize Peter as Dr. Phil asking Jesus, “What in the world were you thinking when you said the Messiah must suffer and die?” Peter, of course, thinks he’s doing Jesus a favor when he scolds the Lord and assures Him that no such thing like that will ever happen to Him. (Mt 16:22)
When Jesus puts Peter straight about the Messiah as one who will suffer, die and be resurrected, Peter freaks out. He grabs Jesus by the arm and pulls him off to the side to straighten out His way of thinking. Visualize Peter as Dr. Phil asking Jesus, “What in the world were you thinking when you said the Messiah must suffer and die?” Peter, of course, thinks he’s doing Jesus a favor when he scolds the Lord and assures Him that no such thing like that will ever happen to Him. (Mt 16:22)
The world’s way of thinking
What does Peter get for his favor? Jesus in turn scolds Peter for his rejection of the cross. Just five verses before, the Lord blesses Simon bar Jonah for his wonderful confession of Him as the Messiah and rewards him for it. He gives Simon a new name -- Peter, Rock, upon which He will build His church. (Mt 16:18) Now five verses later, Jesus calls Peter “Satan.” “Get away from me, Satan![3] You are an obstacle in my path because you think the way the world thinks and not the way God thinks.” (Mt 16:23)
The Christian life is a challenge to break away from the world’s way of thinking. That way of thinking colors all our commercials. They quietly scream out a NO to all sacrifice and self-denial. If you’re overweight they prescribe all kinds of gimmicks to restore a sexy figure to you, but they do not prescribe the best prescription of all: a generous dose of sacrifice and self-denial. That’s the cross. The commercials scream out a NO to any deferral of the nice things of life. If there’s something you want, they tell you not to wait for it but buy it now, even though you don’t have the cash to pay for it.
The commercials scream out a NO to any deferral of joy and pleasure. They tell our kids in whom sex is burgeoning, “If you like it, do it,” instead of encouraging them to put off sex for the sake of a better good. That’s the cross. The commercials quietly scream out a NO to all hard labor and self-application as they try to sell us easy ways to do everything. To learn Spanish or Japanese they sell us language cassettes which require no work at all; all you have to do is turn them on, sit and listen like couch potatoes, and presto, you will be able to speak Spanish or Japanese. In the old days we learned Latin and Greek by laboriously declining nouns and adjectives and conjugating verbs. That’s the cross.
St. Paul writes, "I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of the cross of Christ" (Phil. 3:18). Paul would, indeed, call our commercials “enemies of the cross of Christ." They are our enemies too. They do not prepare us or our kids for the cross which inevitably lies ahead in everyone’s human journey. They do not prepare us for the ills and griefs which inevitably beset the human condition.
The Christian life is a challenge to break away from the world’s way of thinking. That way of thinking colors all our commercials. They quietly scream out a NO to all sacrifice and self-denial. If you’re overweight they prescribe all kinds of gimmicks to restore a sexy figure to you, but they do not prescribe the best prescription of all: a generous dose of sacrifice and self-denial. That’s the cross. The commercials scream out a NO to any deferral of the nice things of life. If there’s something you want, they tell you not to wait for it but buy it now, even though you don’t have the cash to pay for it.
The commercials scream out a NO to any deferral of joy and pleasure. They tell our kids in whom sex is burgeoning, “If you like it, do it,” instead of encouraging them to put off sex for the sake of a better good. That’s the cross. The commercials quietly scream out a NO to all hard labor and self-application as they try to sell us easy ways to do everything. To learn Spanish or Japanese they sell us language cassettes which require no work at all; all you have to do is turn them on, sit and listen like couch potatoes, and presto, you will be able to speak Spanish or Japanese. In the old days we learned Latin and Greek by laboriously declining nouns and adjectives and conjugating verbs. That’s the cross.
St. Paul writes, "I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of the cross of Christ" (Phil. 3:18). Paul would, indeed, call our commercials “enemies of the cross of Christ." They are our enemies too. They do not prepare us or our kids for the cross which inevitably lies ahead in everyone’s human journey. They do not prepare us for the ills and griefs which inevitably beset the human condition.
God’s way of thinking
The Christian life is a challenge to break away from the world’s way of thinking. It’s also a challenge to take on Jesus’ way of thinking. How does He think? He thinks in a way which makes no sense at all to Peter then and to us today. “Whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself, carry his cross, and follow Me.” By “cross” Jesus didn’t mean a cherished pendant which popes and peasants carry around their necks. By “cross” He meant the ugly Roman execution device which He would one day carry on His shoulders.
How does Jesus think? ”Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” Jim Elliot who died in South America trying to reach the Auca Indian tribe once said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”
How does Jesus think? ”Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” Jim Elliot who died in South America trying to reach the Auca Indian tribe once said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”
Jerry Quinn – no fool
Jerry Quinn is no fool. He owns a bar and restaurant in Boston. Reading the New York Post one morning he came upon an article about Franklin Piedra, an Ecuadorian, 33 years old, suffering from chronic kidney failure. His mother wants to give him one of her kidneys. The transplants would cost at least 100,000 dollars, and she has no health insurance. The Ecuadorian Consulate suggests that he simply goes home and dies. That’s the world’s way of thinking.
But Jerry had Jesus’ way of thinking in him (“Blessed are the merciful”). He had been saving his money for a major down-payment on a two-bedroom apartment in a suburban part of Boston with a river view and all. But now another thought kept nagging him, and he couldn’t get rid of it. He called the reporter at the New York Post who wrote the story. He told her he wanted to help. She asked, “How much do you want to donate?” He replied, “I’d like to do the whole thing.” “What!” she exclaimed. “The whole 100,000 dollars,” he replied.
Later Quinn told the media, “I’m not a very wealthy guy, but I am comfortably off. You see, I have this thing in my head -- you can use only one car, you can use only one kitchen and one bathroom, you can only eat so much. That’s my theory of life. So what more do I need?” Jerry is no fool as he “gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”
But Quinn, I believe, did not do what he did because he was hoping to gain a reward which he could not lose. He did it simply because down deep in his heart of hearts he knew that was the right and good thing to do. That in itself is a great reward, and if the Lord wanted to throw in an eternal reward besides, that was perfectly OK with Quinn.
But Jerry had Jesus’ way of thinking in him (“Blessed are the merciful”). He had been saving his money for a major down-payment on a two-bedroom apartment in a suburban part of Boston with a river view and all. But now another thought kept nagging him, and he couldn’t get rid of it. He called the reporter at the New York Post who wrote the story. He told her he wanted to help. She asked, “How much do you want to donate?” He replied, “I’d like to do the whole thing.” “What!” she exclaimed. “The whole 100,000 dollars,” he replied.
Later Quinn told the media, “I’m not a very wealthy guy, but I am comfortably off. You see, I have this thing in my head -- you can use only one car, you can use only one kitchen and one bathroom, you can only eat so much. That’s my theory of life. So what more do I need?” Jerry is no fool as he “gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”
But Quinn, I believe, did not do what he did because he was hoping to gain a reward which he could not lose. He did it simply because down deep in his heart of hearts he knew that was the right and good thing to do. That in itself is a great reward, and if the Lord wanted to throw in an eternal reward besides, that was perfectly OK with Quinn.
Conclusion
The culture of the cross
The culture of the cross
Diametrically opposed to our commercials is the Christian culture of the cross. Though the world looks down upon that kind of culture as neurotic, at the end of the day it touches a profound dimension within us. It even sets us singing,
Hail Holy Cross, Oh noble tree
in all the woods there’s none like thee.”
in all the woods there’s none like thee.”
What’s the culture of the cross? That’s the cross leading solemn processions down endless cathedral aisles as we crown kings and install popes. That’s the cross bedecking the necks of the faithful -- princes and paupers alike. What’s the culture of the cross? That’s the cross dominating the sanctuary as it greets the faithful exhausted by the crosses of the past week. That’s the cross starting off Sunday Mass with a procession through a sea of the faithful and coming to rest at a prominent spot. What’s the culture of the cross? That’s the cross dotting the cemeteries where our loved ones lie, assuring us that they are, at long last, at peace. That’s the cross held aloft by the strong arms of church steeples, tracing city skylines and reminding us to give up what we cannot keep in order to gain what we cannot lose.
[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24
[3] “Satan” is a Hebrew word which means an “opponent” or “adversary.” Peter is an opponent to Jesus because he thinks the way the world thinks and not the way God thinks.
