On Knowing and Pleasing God
Homily “On Knowing and Pleasing God” for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time based on the Gospel of Matthew 16:21-27:
In last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus commended Peter as being led by the Holy Spirit. Peter had proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah and Son of God. In today’s Gospel, Jesus reproves Peter. Peter tried to discourage Jesus from carrying out the Father’s plan. That’s why Jesus called him a devil, someone who is fighting against the will of God.
Peter went from being at one with the Spirit and recognizing that Jesus was the Christ, to being controlled by the fears of life.
Today, if someone were to ask us who Jesus is, most of us would quickly answer – “The Christ, the Son of the living God, the Savior of the world.” – simply because of our religious background. We have grown up in the church. From earliest childhood, we have heard and we have been taught the story of Jesus.
However, if you think about it - this was not the case with Peter and the other disciples. They, too, had a religious background, but it was not the same as ours. Instead of the story of Jesus, they had been nurtured on the promises of a Messiah. For centuries - in their hearts was the joyful hope that God would send a Redeemer for Israel.
Then one day they met Jesus. At first, they met him and knew him as a man, the most fascinating man they had ever known. Then as they lived with him, looked at him, and listened to him, they began to sense and see something else.
As St. Paul wrote in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians (4:6) – they began to see “the glory of God shining on the face of Jesus.” – they saw and felt something in him – which they had never seen or felt in any other human being. There was a quality in his life which they could neither explain nor resist (healing, helping, forgiving, loving, teaching, living out life in a certain way).
Finally, there came the day, we heard in last Sunday’s gospel reading, when Peter said: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
My brothers and sisters, we are all called and challenged to try to recapture what Peter felt and to try to understand what it all meant for Peter – to have that same intimate awareness and knowledge of Jesus, His purpose and mission – because, unfortunately - for most of us that sentence: “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God” - has become so familiar that we do not even hear it anymore – with our hearts. But for Peter and all his fellow disciples, it was a spiritual breakthrough.
We can pretty much imagine there were probably tears rolling down Peter’s cheeks as he spoke the words for the first time. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” – the fulfillment of the promise.
That is why – as we heard in our Gospel today, it was tough, to say the least, for Peter to hear what Jesus said that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Unfortunately, Peter missed the last part – “and on the third day be raised” - because he had no concept of Resurrection. It went over his head, so to speak.
In the letter to the Romans (which we heard last Sunday): Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!
Paul was wise enough to know and big enough to confess that all of his knowledge and all of his insights were only a tiny fraction of the truth about God. You and I need the same kind of awareness. One of the greatest truths that you and I will ever know about God is that we really do not know much.
The Good News is - We have enough truth to teach us what we ought to be and to take us where we ought to go. God wants to have a personal relationship with us. The mystery must inspire us.
From the Second Reading from the Letter to the Romans:
"I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
To conform to this age means allowing the world to shape us. To be transformed means allowing God to reshape us. Conformity is saying: “Everybody is doing it. It must be okay.” NO! Transformation asks: “Is it pleasing to God?
“Do not conform to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind
so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:1-2
The problem is when we pray, we say: “Lord, bless my plan” making God the servant of our plans instead of praying: “Lord show me your plan. What is your plan for me?” - making us servants of God's plan. There is a world of difference. In the Gospel, Peter wants Jesus to follow his expectations. That is why Jesus said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
In the Gospel, Jesus said: Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Christian life is not about making Christ fit into our plans. It is about allowing Christ to transform our plans according to God's will… but we must first encounter and know Christ.
To encounter Christ is not just to know about Christ but to know Christ personally. Christianity is not merely about having information about Jesus; it is about having a relationship with Jesus. We can know everything about his life, miracles and parables…. and even speak beautifully about Christ—and still remain distant from Christ, not in relationship with Christ, because it is all just in the head. You maybe are good in religious practices but have no personal relationship with Christ.
Let us move from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus personally.
from information to relationship, and from relationship to mission… Blessings come with a mission.
My brothers and sisters – like Jeremiah, like Paul and Peter - we are called to be something – someone - special. We are called to be Church. The word church means the community or assembly called or chosen. We are, in fact, "the community called out." But what is it that we are called out for?
We are to be in the world but not of it. We are to be good stewards of the earth's resources. We are not destined for earth only - we are destined to be with God forever. We are "called out" to be of service to our brothers and our sisters especially to those in need … to be living sacraments or channels or instruments of God’s love, grace and mercy.
You and I, working together, are called to build up the Kingdom of God… brick by brick (like our church building – a great illustration), stone by stone, person by person - we are to be the builders. Faith in Jesus Christ makes us into rocks or spiritual stones.
- “Upon this rock I will build my Church” as Jesus said.
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. A Christian who has truly
encountered Christ cannot remain untouched, cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of another human being.
That is being Church, the Body of Christ. We are the Body of Christ. When we receive Communion; when we receive the Eucharist, the Body of Christ, we become what we receive – the Body of Christ.
St. Teresa of Avila said it so beautifully:
Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which Jesus looks with compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good.
Yours are the hands with which He blesses the world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours and mine.
My brothers and sisters, may our lives be living sacrifices, living sacraments of God’s love, grace and mercy, holy and pleasing to God.
Amen.
