Meditation
for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
(Jer
20:7-9; Rm 12:1-2; Mt 16:21-27)
Let us meditate on the divine transaction that saves. The readings of today underline a certain divine investment, which is expected to bear eternal profit. From the human perspective, this investment appears to be a loss. This is what the prophet Jeremiah complained in the first reading. As he committed himself to the will of God, all he could hear was violence and destruction! But the word of God has an overpowering influence on him like a burning fire in his heart, rooted in his bones, which he could not resist. This deep rooted irresistible divine touch kept Jeremiah going despite the hardships he faced because of the word of God.
In the second reading, St says, “I
appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
This is the divine transaction, that we offer our mortal bodies for Him who
offered His Body for us on the Cross. The guiding principle is to ensure that
we are no conformed to the world, but we should be transformed by the renewal
of our minds by the will of God. The will of God determines for us what is good
and acceptable and perfect.
In the gospel, Jesus began to
explain to the disciples that He was ready to fulfill the will of God by going
up to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed, and on the third day be raised. Surprisingly,
Peter, who was very close to Jesus, and who received the revelation Jesus is
the Messiah, tried to discourage Him. Peter was viewing what Jesus said from
the human angle, which sees suffering as loss. Jesus makes us understand that
when one offers his body to the divine will, it may appear as suffering but
that is the most beneficial transaction! “For whoever would save his life will
lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it
profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?”
“For if
you sow to your flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh. But if you sow
to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” (Gal 6:7-8). What is sown
is perishable, but what is reaped is imperishable (1 Cor 15:42). The ‘divine
transaction’ offers us more benefit than we can ever put in; what we reap far
outweighs what we invest! Jesus has opened for us the pathway of ‘divine
investment’, such that whoever denies himself, takes up his cross and follow Him
will surely be saved and will never be at loss. In Jesus, the violence and
destruction Jeremiah talked about have been conquered. The overpowering word of
God dwells with us, empowering us from within with the consuming fire of the
Holy Spirit. The strength of this divine touch is so strong that even when sin
tries to separate us, his irresistible hand brings us back. Amen.
Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.
Sunday September 3rd,
2023.
