Sunday 22 A (2023)

Today’s gospel follows on directly from last week’s –

it is the next few verses:

and what a contrast!

Last week we heard Peter, speaking out,

in answer to Jesus’ question ‘who do you say that I am?’.

Matthew has Peter responding,

‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’.

– a powerful confession of faith in Jesus,

and a turning point for the disciples,

for it leads Jesus to speak more openly about his mission –

about what it means to be the Christ, God’s anointed one.

As Matthew puts it:

Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was…

to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously….

Peter can’t accept this;  

it doesn’t not fit with his idea of the Christ.

Despite Peter’s inspired recognition of who Jesus is,

he doesn’t grasp its implications.

He likes things the way they are.

I imagine Peter saying

‘but we don’t have to go to Jerusalem;

why don’t you just continue your wonderful work here?’

and Jesus responding:

I must announce the Good News of the Kingdom of God in Jerusalem,

with all that that will bring.

This is the right thing to do.

I am not going to be deflected by fear;

and you shouldn’t be either.

As usual in the gospel,

the incident provides a pointer to a general truth,

a general truth captured in the words:

If anyone wants to be a follower of mine,

let them renounce themselves

and take up their cross and follow me.

Daunting words.

Indeed, they are impossibly demanding words

if we rely on our own efforts.

Peter and the disciples do accompany Jesus to Jerusalem,

so they continued to get to know him more deeply:

but they have not yet become true followers of Jesus.

It is the gift of the Holy Spirit

that enables the disciples to make sense of all that Jesus did and said.

It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that turns them into images of Christ,

with the courage and perseverance to live and die as he did.

The Holy Spirit transforms them into true followers of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit transforms us;

the Holy Spirt moves us to imitation of Jesus’ selfless love.

Love – the setting aside of self for others –

is the real presence of the Holy Spirit.

Such love, wherever we encounter it,

works its way into our very being,

changing our sense of what matters,

changing how we want to behave.

As, in this Eucharist, we recall the love of Jesus,

may that love transform us into his true followers.