Let yourselves be offered to God and allow yourselves to be conformed, not to this passing world, but to be conformed to the Love of God and to His Holy Will, giving yourselves as victims of Love, and thus becoming Co-Redeemers with Jesus for the salvation of the world.

Twenty-Second in Ordinary Time. September 3rd, 2017. Matthew 16; 21-27

Last week we read about Peter making his profession of faith- he being the first one to confess that Jesus was not only the Christ-the Messiah, but that Jesus was truly the living and true God in the flesh. We hear today that it was the Father alone who revealed this wisdom to Peter—for no man on his own can believe that Jesus is God, the only begotten Son of the Father—it takes the gift of supernatural Faith-a gift from God.

Because of Peter’s confession, Jesus intends to build His Church upon the person of Peter, this is signified by a name Change. Peter, once called Simon, is now call Peter, which means literally Rock-You are Rock and upon this Rock I will build my Church. Peter becomes the first Pope and is given the Key of the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth—he is Christ Vicar on earth.

This week, it seems we read quite the opposite- Peter, the “Rock” is now called Satan. How does one go from being blessed by God, the one who knows the secrets of God, to now being called Satan, practically all in but an instant?

After the profession of faith by Peter, Jesus announces to the apostles another secret- that He would go to Jerusalem and enter into His passion by be handed over to be killed and on the third day rise again. Peter, like most of us when any talk of negative things comes up thinks or says– God Forbid! Certainly Peter here is expressing a normal, loving HUMAN sentiment. But then comes one of the harshest rebukes in all of the Gospels- Peter is called Satan. How Peter must have been crushed when his ears first heard this.

Jesus immediately then tells Peter the truth, that he-Peter-the first Pope, is thinking not as God thinks, but as men do. In other words, the wisdom of the Father is being revealed to you, beyond all human reasoning—don’t think as man does but as God does. The Son of Man, who is also the Son of God, must suffer and even die.

The Passion and death of Jesus is certainly the greatest evil to ever or that can ever occur on the face of the earth—at the Crucifixion there occurred, literally, Deicide-man killed God, man tortured and hung His Creator on the Cross to kill Him-to wipe Him off the face of the earth. Only in this great mystery does the mystery of all men and woman’s suffering and death find meaning, find purpose, find hope.

The problem of suffering and evil is certainly a long topic to discuss in a homily; books written on the subject could fill a library. But simply put, it is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. If we say, and I think we should- God forbid this or that evil, we are saying some true and honest. We pray this daily- often times more than once although maybe in many and different ways. Think of how many times God, through our prayers or others, has sent His angels to help us avoid a car accident. Yet, for others, in spite of their guardian angels they do get in car accidents and as a result suffer injury and death. Were their guardians asleep? Were they worse than we? Did God love them any less than us?

Bad things do happen, even to good people, for the rain falls on the bad and the good (cf Mt 5:45). Indeed, it seems ultimately Satan must be the source of the evils in this world. And original sin has had great consequences—man is fallen and so is now prone to suffering and death. But we cannot fall into the trap of saying every little discomfort is from Satan or that only sinners or those without faith suffer. Many of the evils we do suffer are a consequence of our personal sin, but then other sufferings are the results of other peoples sins, and still others the result of no one’s personal sins. So then, what are we to do about all of this?

We must return to our passage, as Jesus reveals the Wisdom of God. Jesus says first, you must deny yourself and follow me; you must take up your cross and follow me. The suffering we experience, often on a daily basis, needs to be united with that of Jesus’. Jesus entered into His passion so we could have ultimate victory over evil. In other words, Jesus didn’t suffer and die so that we don’t have too, but He suffered and died so that our suffering a death could be united to His for the sake of the world and for the salvation of souls, our own and others.

Jesus Christ Himself was not only a priest, He was a priest/victim. There had been many other “priests” in the History of the world. But Jesus, was the first priest in the history of the world, ever to be both the one who offered and the one being offered. He was the priest who offered Himself in sacrifice for those He loved and then He commandment His followers to do the same. If anyone would be a disciple of mine let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Jesus, wanted his disciples (and us) to carry their cross out of love and so follow him by uniting their sufferings, all that they have, their very lives to His suffering and death on the cross. Christians, especially us Catholics, we are called to share in the priesthood/victimhood of Jesus Christ. Many there are, it seems want to be priests, demand to be priests, but few there are who want to priest-victims. We all, by our baptism, belong to the Royal Priesthood of believers, but not only Priesthood, but Royal Victimhood of believers. We are called, chosen by Jesus, to join our spiritual sacrifices and our very lives to His sacrifice for the salvation of souls and the salvation of the whole world….for “No greater love is there than this, than he would lay down his life for his friends.” This laying down of one’s life is not necessarily a physical death, but a death to self, a death to selfishness and a life of selflessness—to die to self will and to live to God’s will alone.

Jesus says, whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. The Greek word “psyche” here for life is much richer than this- it means our soul and person. When adore the Father through Jesus, we abandon ourselves- all that we have and all that we are-especially our suffering to Him. We unite ourselves to His cross. And Jesus gives us the grace each day, to take up our cross and follow him.

God loves each one of us and only allows suffering in our lives so that good can come out of it, that through our sufferings and the offering of them, many souls may come back to Him. Suffering and death are great evils in this life, it is true, but the greatest evil and the greatest loss possible is the loss of a soul for all eternity. The saints have said that any amount of suffering was worth it, if by the offering of our suffering we could saved just one soul from hell and bring them back to God and to a everlasting happiness and union with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and the whole family of the saints and angels for all of eternity.

We don’t have to go looking for crosses, they will come in our lives. Mostly they will be the little annoyances, trips, snags, drops, and monotony of every day life. Sometimes our crosses may be greater, heavier. For those of you that now carry a heavy cross, I pray that the Peace of Jesus Christ be with you, the Peace that the world can not give, the Peace that is beyond all human understanding; the Peace that alone is able to bring us Joy, even in the midst of our deepest and darkest sufferings, a Peace that lets us know that God loves us with an incredible love and never, never abandons us. Especially to you I say:

“The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart. This cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His holy Name, anointed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God.”

It is the Holy Mass that makes the Cross of Christ available to us so that we can unite and offering our sufferings to the Eternal Father. At this Holy Mass and at all the Masses you are privileged to attend, I would ask you to offer yourselves, your sufferings, your very lives “as a holy sacrifice truly pleasing to God.” Spiritually as priests/victims place your offering on the altar and then through the mediation of the ordained priest, who is acting in the very person of Christ, unite your offering to Christ’s own sacrifice. Let yourselves be offered to God and allow yourselves to be conformed, not to this passing world, but to conformed to the Love of God and to His Holy Will, giving yourselves as victims of Love, becoming Co-Redeemers with Jesus, for the salvation of the world.

Let us make our offering to the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, in union with the pure and chaste Heart of St. Joseph. Amen.