Sunday the 30th of August 2026 - Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 20:7-9/ Ps 63(62)/ Romans 12:1-2/ Matthew 16:21-27

We live in a time of instant gratification. If we want something we want it now. Online retailers promise same day delivery of almost anything. We want everything without the wait, without the work, without the cost. We want to arrive without making the journey. Peter in the gospel passage today was a bit like this. We know Peter loved Jesus, he confirmed it three times, but he also wanted the happy ending without the hard road. He wanted the resurrection without the cross. Jesus rebuked him, because Peter was thinking as human beings think, not as God thinks. The truth is, the things worth having, patience, love, holiness, eternal life, are never handed to us instantly. They are formed in us on the road to the cross.

This year the weather has taught us something the psalm for today knew long ago. We have watched the ground crack under the sun, the grass turn brown, the earth grow tired for want of rain. In that dry, weary land we hear our own hearts call out, my soul is thirsting, like a dry, weary land without water. That thirst within us is real, and deep, we spend our lives trying to satisfy it. We reach for pleasures, possessions, achievements, distractions. However much this world promises, it will always leave us thirsty. The things of this life let us down, they come to an end. The pleasures they give are fleeting and unsatisfying, because we were made for something the world cannot give. Saint Paul understood this, and in the second reading he calls us to something counter-cultural. We must not be conformed to this world. We must allow our minds to be renewed, so that we can discern the will of God. God sees beyond our short lives here. He sees us as He created us to be, perfect, immortal, created for eternity with Him. We are in the world but not of the world.

The challenges we face in this life stem from sin entering creation through the misuse of the gift of free will. The path back to that eternal life passes through the cross. Jesus began to prepare His disciples for this truth. He told them plainly that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and on the third day be raised. Peter, perhaps bolstered with confidence after being named the rock, took Jesus aside daring to rebuke Him saying this should never happen to Him. Jesus responded to Peter calling him Satan and an obstacle to Him, rebuking Peter for thinking not as God thinks, but as human beings think. A strong rebuke for someone who clearly loved Jesus. The problem was that Peter was setting his mind on the things of man rather than the things of God. He wanted the crown without the cross, the resurrection without Calvary. Do we do the same? Do we want a faith without cost, love without sacrifice? Jesus makes the paradox unmistakable. If we want to save our life we will lose it, but if we lose our life for the sake of Jesus, we will find it. To cling desperately to this life is to lose it. To hand it over to Jesus is to gain it forever. The world does not understand this. It sees suffering as a negative, something to be avoided at any price, even offering assisted suicide as a remedy. We are not called to abandon Jesus on His cross, we are called to stand beside Him, to unite our own suffering to His, and so make it our route to salvation.

Jeremiah in the first reading, tried to resist God's call. The mockery and derision wore him down, and he resolved to speak no more. He found that he could not stay silent, there was a burning fire within him that he could not hold within. That was the fire of God's love, it cannot be extinguished by the contempt of the world. Peter, also tried to resist the will of God and was rebuked for it. He went on to follow Jesus all the way to his own crucifixion. Jesus was saying an unconditional "yes" to the Father's will, to undo the "no" of humanity spoken by Adam. We are invited into that same "yes." It has been said that God made us for Himself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. That restlessness is the thirst spoken of in the psalm, the fire within Jeremiah, the longing, the thirst nothing on earth can quench. Challenging though it may be, we must see our suffering as a positive path toward salvation and a way to offer to others the love Jesus gives us. Real love always has a price, always asks us to give something of ourselves. When we unite our trials to those Jesus bore for us, we connect with the suffering of others, we help them bear their burdens, and we walk the road Jesus opened for us to the Father. In the sacrifice of the Mass Jesus offers His body given up for us. This is love that holds nothing back. Saint Paul calls us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, to bring our own crosses to Jesus and lay them on the altar with His.

Following Jesus will cause suffering. Jesus made no secret of this telling us that to follow him we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses. We must overcome our will so that we can do God’s will. We must sacrifice what we would prefer to do so that we can do what God calls us to do. If we do the will of God Jesus promises to reward us. The hope we have in this promise gives us the strength to carry on, sustains us in our efforts, and helps us not to count the cost.

Each time we pray the Our Father, we say, 'Thy will be done.' Let us go out today truly meaning those words, following wherever the will of God may lead.

God Bless Brendan