TEXT: The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew 16: 21-27

When I lived in North Carolina on the mid-Atlantic coast of the United Stated of America I had a very good friend and minister who continually spoke to me about a certain evangelist (or two) who proclaimed a message that said that, if we gave to God a certain amount of our income, God was "obligated" to give us perfect health, wealth and happiness.

Needless to say, I was not convinced then, nor now, that the plan of God must (of necessity) follow the plan that the minister spoke of.

So many have the idea that God is somehow obligated to keep his people from suffering and privations.

Many preach that the true Christian does not suffer, or ought not to suffer, because God has somehow redeemed us from sufferings.

Neither the Bible, nor the Church, teaches us that suffering are something Christians do not experience.  In fact, it is otherwise.  All true Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, do experience the cross of denial and sufferings necessary for the life’s work we have in Christ!

The cross was essential to the life work of Jesus, therefore, it is essential for our life work as true Christians.

We cannot escape the cross.

We are called to take up our cross and follow Jesus daily.

Let us listen to this passage, as Jesus proclaims this to our first Holy Father and the apostles.

21  From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

To be identified with Christ in holy baptism is to be identified with his death, burial and resurrection, beloved.  We dare not forget this.  St. Paul said in his letter to the Church in Galatia, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  (Galatians 2:20, RSV)

It is not we who dictate the terms of our discipleship.  It is God who dictates the terms whereby we follow Jesus.  Jesus does not follow us...we are called to holiness to follow Jesus completely, even if it means the ignominious death of a common criminal at the hands of an unjust judge in the world!

So, the first Holy Father took Jesus aside and rebuked him.

22 And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you."
23  But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men."

If we are to be on the side of God, we will in fact suffer persecution in the world’s wilderness.

Is it not so with Maria and the remnant of her seed ?  Please re-read Revelation 12 and see what follows in Revelation 13-18!  Yet, we see Revelation 19 ff the story of the Christus Victor.  When we humbly follow Jesus, as Mary, we find that we are suddenly thrust upon the cross we bear for Jesus, whom the world’s wilderness "beasts" do not love, but, hate.

While contemplating these things a few nights ago, I sensed the following words as a "wilderness battle cry" within my soul --

("The smells of battle and sounds of spiritual warfare and smoke, the sweat and blood, and the struggle abound.  St. Michael the Archangel leads the angelic hosts against a third of the fallen ones and Satan, the red dragon of the Apocalypse.  Satan is cast to the ground with his hosts.

The people of God are crying out for leadership amid the spiritual conflict that has come to us, the angelic conflict has come to earth, where Mary our Mother has fled into the desert to the place prepared for her by God.  The people of God, the laity, the clergy, have followed her.  Now, we begin to discover our true vocation, the awesome beckoning and the holy call of God.

(Suffering for Christ)

Still, Satan attempts to drown us with waters that come crashing toward us like those terrible waters from  a mighty  broken dam, and many tons of mud and rock are seen from the desert, as they menacingly descend upon the people of God to kill us and destroy our effectiveness in a world gone mad.

Yet, the call of God to new evangelization and emerging vocations is clear.  The world has changed and so must we, the Holy Catholic Church the People of God, adapt our methods in the proclamation and living out of the glorious gospel of Jesus, and become the witnesses, the martyrs, the saints, the faithful for Jesus that we have always been, as the new creations in Christ Jesus we are in the present and presence of the Holy Trinity, one God.

It is our blood too that must be mingled with the blood of the saints, our bodies that must be broken,  as we become identified within the Body of Christ as blood and body willingly given up for the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, the Head.  So, must we die to our self interests and live for Christ and one another, laying aside our own prerogatives and following in our Lord’s  footsteps to the glory that awaits us in Christ!

New evangelization, new institutes, new forms of consecrated life are coming to life in these times of great opportunity when the Church will again become united -- all now we see them begin to emerge at the call of God the Holy Spirit, like the call of God for the light to come into the darkness, like the Vine that nourishes the branches, like the waters of life that bring life to the thirsty.  God is moving and we are responding.

The sheep hear the Voice of God and we are following.

Try to crush us, they may try, but God will see his work through, because we walk into the place of God prepared for Mary in the wilderness, the desert where we live, where the remnant of her seed follows the Mother of God who teaches us to walk where none have walked before to bring many sons and many daughters Home to glory, amen.")

Let’s face it.  If we are friends with the world, flesh and the devil -- we are not the friend of Jesus.

The world hates Jesus, because Jesus demands the "cross."

The world demands nothing but our eternal souls.

Yet, for many of us, We do not relish the cross either, beloved.  Yet, it is only through the cross of Jesus, and the cross he provides for us, with him that we become "victors" in Jesus as well.  (Cf.- Romans 8:18-39 which I have posted for you to read...)

Praise to God alone for his bless Eucharistic Gift of himself!

This is who St. Paul could proclaim, as we must learn to proclaim--

(18   I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God;
20  for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope;
21  because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22  We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now;
23  and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24  For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26  Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.
27  And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because  the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him,  who are called according to his purpose.
29  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31  What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?
32  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?
33  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies;
34  who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?
35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36  As it is written, "For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
37  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. )



Finally, Jesus said --

24  Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
26 For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?
27 For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done.

May God speak to our hearts and lead us all to perfect reconciliation to Jesus.



Deus et Sanctissima.