{"id":1441,"date":"2014-08-31T12:08:47","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T16:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1441"},"modified":"2014-08-31T12:08:47","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T16:08:47","slug":"22nd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/22nd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

22nd<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nJeremiah 20:7-9
\nRomans 12:`01
\nMatthew 16:21-27
\nAugust 31, 2014
\nJeremiah wonders if he has been duped in his role as a prophet.\u00a0 He is proclaiming God\u2019s Word and he suffers derision and reproach for it.<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t preaching God\u2019s Word be easy?\u00a0 People should want to hear it, right?<\/p>\n

We might say we want to hear God\u2019s Word but it isn\u2019t always what we want to hear.\u00a0 Sometimes, following God\u2019s Word means we need to make changes in our life, changes that we don\u2019t want to make.<\/p>\n

So, when Jeremiah speaks they don\u2019t want to follow, they ridicule him and make him out to be the bad guy.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah has grown tired of the suffering so much that he says he is going to stop prophesying.\u00a0 Yet, he realizes he can\u2019t because of the fire in his heart.<\/p>\n

Peter has this same zeal to proclaim God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 Last week we heard Peter proclaim Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God<\/em>.\u00a0 In these words we see a great faith in part.<\/p>\n

Now, today\u2019s passage picks up where last week left off.\u00a0 For the first time Jesus tells his disciples that he will be arresting, suffer, and be crucified.<\/p>\n

Peter\u2019s immediate response is to rebuke<\/em> Jesus.\u00a0 Can you imagine?\u00a0 He just proclaimed Jesus as the Christ and now he is telling Jesus he\u2019s wrong.\u00a0 How can a person tell Jesus he is wrong?<\/p>\n

Of course, we would never tell Jesus what to do!\u00a0 Well, actually we do.\u00a0 Who among us has not at some point told Jesus what we want him to do?\u00a0 There is a fine line to walk in our prayers of asking vs. telling.\u00a0 For instance, when we pray for someone looking for a job, do we tell Jesus exactly what the job should be like or do we ask God to help the person get the job that God says is the right job?<\/p>\n

Peter doesn\u2019t really mean to rebuke Jesus.\u00a0 Peter, just like many others, had his expectations of what the Messiah would be like.\u00a0 NO ONE\u2019s expectations including suffering and crucifixion.\u00a0 It won\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

If we believe in Jesus and do what he asks, shouldn\u2019t life be easy?<\/p>\n

Life wasn\u2019t easy for Jesus.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t easy for Jeremiah or the other prophets.\u00a0 David became a great king but he faced struggles too.\u00a0 Why should we expect any different?<\/p>\n

Should we not be willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus?<\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus can do this as Son of God but is it possible for humans?<\/p>\n

With God\u2019s grace, absolutely.\u00a0 We see it in the saints.\u00a0 Friday we celebrated the passion of John the Baptist.\u00a0 He denied himself by putting the mission God had given him before his own life.\u00a0 He willing accepted the hardships (his cross) that went with this.<\/p>\n

To deny ourselves is not to deny who we are.\u00a0 It\u2019s about letting God transform us into who we are meant to be.\u00a0 Taking up our cross is about being willing to offer ourselves as a \u201cliving sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being Christian is not about being popular.\u00a0 Being Christian is about the Truth that Jesus teaches us.\u00a0 May we always have the gifts of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom to know the Truth and the courage to live and proclaim God\u2019s Truth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Jeremiah 20:7-9 Romans 12:`01 Matthew 16:21-27 August 31, 2014 Jeremiah wonders if he has been duped in his role as a prophet.\u00a0 He is proclaiming God\u2019s Word and he suffers derision and reproach for it. Shouldn\u2019t preaching God\u2019s Word be easy?\u00a0 People should want to hear it, right? …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-nf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1446,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions\/1446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}