No Turning Back

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Aug 31
First reading                                         Jeremiah 20:7-9

You have seduced me, Lord, and I have let myself be seduced;

you have overpowered me: you were the stronger.

I am a daily laughing-stock,

everybody’s butt.

Each time I speak the word, I have to howl

and proclaim: ‘Violence and ruin!’

The word of the Lord has meant for me

insult, derision, all day long.

I used to say, ‘I will not think about him,

I will not speak in his name any more.’

Then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart,

imprisoned in my bones.

The effort to restrain it wearied me,

I could not bear it.

Psalm                                                 Psalm 62:2-6,8-9

Second reading                              Romans 12:1-2

Think of God’s mercy, my brothers, and worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of 
thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God. Do not 
model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you, but let your behaviour change, 
modelled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is 
good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.

.

Gospel                                          Matthew 16:21-27

Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and 

suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and 

to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. 

‘Heaven preserve you, Lord;’ he said ‘this must not happen to you.’ But he turned and said to 

Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is 

not God’s way but man’s.’

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce 

himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; 

but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will a man gain if he wins the 

whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life. 

‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he 

does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour.’

Reflection
By Bernard Borja

Let’s do some visualization.

Imagine you are walking in a beautiful rainforest. You can feel the serenity of the trees as the wind whispers gently on your face. Birds’ chirping in a chorus-like hymn accompanied by the sound of the falling leaves churning with the humming of the insects, blending with the flow of a stream and the splashing of a distant waterfall. The fragrance of the flowers soothes the mind as dew drops from the plants touches your arms with a cool mist in the air. Small critters sneaking curiously from the branches like children giving a warm welcome to their guest. It is such a paradise designed to lift up the spirit as you wander around.

As you go along, you notice a sign pointing to a bridge going to the other side of the forest. It says, “Walk ahead. It is more beautiful beyond”. You feel at peace as you read the words and slowly walk on the bridge. But as you look further to the other side, you do not see any likeness from the forest where you used to walk. It was darker that sunlight has no chance of peeking through the thick brownish leaves of the huge trees. Not even the wind can go through which makes the air thinner if you go deeper through it. There are thorns on the ground and the old branches hanging slightly above are like knives that can pierce the flesh. Your mind is suddenly filled with fear as you wonder what kind of danger awaits you if you go through it.

At this point you are already in the middle of the bridge. What will you do? Will you turn back to the forest where you walked? Or will you trust the sign and go beyond to see what’s on the other side?

Let’s leave the forest for a while and go back to our Gospel for today. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about “take up your cross”? Some people would say it is about suffering. I, too, have once associated this as the same pain that Jesus Christ had to go through. But should we just focus on the pain and suffering if we talk about taking up our cross? Let us remember that Jesus was sent to us to bring heaven into our life and following Him is more of a walk into God’s paradise.

Most of the time we are so focused on our suffering or the pain that a future event can bring to us. We forget how Jesus demonstrated to us a power, through the feeding of the five thousand, for us to experience God’s enormous blessings. Even before we decided to follow Jesus, He has already been walking with us in the beautiful forest. When we go through our hard times, He is always there to reach out His hand. Even if we do not know what kind of danger lies ahead of us, He is there and we know that He can calm whatever storm is in us.

Let’s go back to the bridge in the forest. If you know that beyond the dark forest there is a much better paradise; will you take the risk of getting wounded by the thorns? And if you know that Jesus will help you get through it, will you still turn back?

If we only focus on the great things that Jesus can do to our life, the pain and suffering of taking up our cross will be just like a walk in the dark forest. We are assured that He will always lead us to a much beautiful paradise through the cross. And we can always remember that when we follow Jesus, every step is worth taking. We won’t even think about turning back.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, lead us on our way to Your beautiful paradise. We believe that in every step we take with You, we are opening our hearts to receive the heavenly gifts that Our Father has meant for us. Thank You for being with us through the storms even if You had to cross the boundaries just to help us get through. We follow You as we take our cross before us and feel Your loving embrace because in You we believe that there is life everlasting. Amen.