TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME A

[cappie]

Sooner or later, all of us have to bear something that is, to all intents and purposes, unbearable. A young widow is left with three children to raise alone because her husband was killed in an accident at work. A baby dies at birth. A sister dies in a car crash involving a drunk driver.  Sooner or later, we realize how little control we have over so much that damages our society and ourselves. What sort of conversation can we possibly have with God when we are like this?

Today’s readings begin with an example of what Hebrew Bible scholars call a lament. The prophet Jeremiah gives voice to unbearable pain, anger, and misery at unspeakable horrors and uncontrollable events that surround him in his life as a prophet of God’s Word. His relationship with God has ceased to be a joy and delight and has become an unceasing pain. Jeremiah is bearing something unbearable, and all he wants is for the misery to stop.   God simply assures Jeremiah of his presence, to strengthen him to withstand more misery.

Now we can turn to today’s Gospel and register the impact of Jesus’ exchange of words with Peter. We pick up in Matthew’s Gospel right after last week’s scene, in which Peter had acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed one of God. In that scene, Jesus called Peter a rock, and said, on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Then Jesus explains to his friends that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders, and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. Suddenly, Peter the Rock becomes Satan and a stumbling block.  Yet all Peter had said was, God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you

Peter’s objection sounds to us so innocuous at first: how could anyone have known or understood the workings of God in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection?

But St Matthew, writing all this down years later, has both known and understood. When we are bearing the unbearable, we need a God who has suffered the depths of rage and despair as we ourselves do. No other God can be trusted, and this is the Good News of God in Christ.

Whatever the unbearable suffering, whatever the uncontrollable events that afflict and grieve us to the core of our being, God has seen it, known it, and taken it into God’s own life in Jesus who was crucified, who died, descended into hell, and was raised on the third day. This is why we cannot and must not take suffering, death, and resurrection out of the Jesus story: that is what says to us not that God has obliterated or removed everything that is unbearable in human misery, not that God has taken away all cause for rage and anger in human life, not even that God controls all things but that God is the one who bears the misery and the rage with us and for us. By bearing the unbearable, God overcomes it and faithfully keeps the conversation open for life.

These readings today let us know that we cannot take the cross out of Jesus’ life and death because the cross is the place for every human experience of hell on earth. God knows this; God has been there, and as a consequence we know this God can be trusted. The Prophet Jerimah  was faithful in his perception that no other channel of communication is open to us when we find ourselves bearing the unbearable amid things that we cannot control. And Peter was  wrong to imagine a God who could remain with his people without bearing the unbearable himself.

The call to discipleship isn't easy; it demands sacrifice, selflessness, and a resolute commitment to Christ. However, we can find solace in the fact that our sacrifices are never in vain. They lead to a deeper relationship with God and the promise of eternal rewards.

May we heed Christ's call, recognizing that the way of the cross is the path to life. Let us pray for the strength and grace to live out this calling daily, knowing that Christ is with us every step of the way.