Archbishop of Sydney

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Jer 20:7-9; Rom 12:1-2; Mt 16:21-27

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
28 August 2005

The gospel acclamation today is taken from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  “May the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our heart, that we might see how great is the hope to which we are called.”

Some of this is strange imagery indeed; what we sometimes call a mixed metaphor, because a heart does not have eyes and a heart does not see.  Traditionally for us Westerners the heart is regarded as the source or symbol of our affections, feelings; it is the great symbol of love.  So I think the image means that we are called to understand Christian hope, the future which awaits us as good Christians, both with our minds and with our feelings.  We can sometimes see things quite clearly in an intellectual sense, but not be tempted to act, to be quite unmoved.  It is very different to encounter suffering personally, different from reading about it, or even seeing it on TV, because our emotions are engaged more deeply with a personal encounter.

But Christian hope means dealing effectively with suffering and is not compatible with ignoring suffering or pretending it does not exist.  Doing our duty sometimes, perhaps even often at different stages in our lives, means confronting suffering and dealing with it.

Jeremiah was a 7th century B.C. Jewish prophet at a time when Israel was caught between the two superpowers of Egypt and Babylon.  Jeremiah was convinced that it was his duty to warn Israel of the consequences of her unfaithfulness, to warn her that an alliance with Egypt was mistaken and to come to terms with Babylon.  His advice was rejected, Babylon captured Jerusalem in 586B.C. and many Jews were taken into exile.  In Jerusalem today, about 15–20 metres underground you can see the gate the Babylonians entered.  In fact they found remnants e.g. spear tips around there from that time.

Jeremiah was also very clear about the consequences of doing his duty, the suffering it would bring him: insult and derision all day long.  However the fire burning in his heart would not allow him to keep silent.

He was an example of what Paul, much later, was explaining to the Romans.  Our task is to follow the will of God, to know and do what is good, rather than modelling ourselves on the behaviour of the world around us.

Jesus came among us to strengthen our hope, as well as our faith and love.  He did not come among us to make us miserable, although he did not promise us an easy ride if we became his followers.  There was no suggestion that life was meant to be easy, that we should play now and pay later.  Doing our duty sometimes brings difficulties and problems, which we have to face.

In the gospel today Peter gets caught up, lurches into big trouble as Jesus faces up to his immediate prospects.

Jesus had been explaining that he was destined to suffer grievously and be put to death before he rose again; a difficult message for his friends and followers to stomach.  “Heaven preserve you, Lord” said St. Peter.  “This must not happen to you”.

My first reaction is still to think that anyone of us would have said this; we would be inclined to speak like this to any friend.  Poor Peter was not rebuked gently.  Jesus was quite rough with him and Matthew places this incident immediately after Jesus had designated him as the rock man on whom he would build the Church.

It was not that Our Lord had a masochistic desire for suffering, but that he saw clearly that if He was to do his duty, follow his Father’s will, there was no alternative to going forward, except perhaps to abandon his special religious claims and his mission.  He was probably so rough with Peter because he felt Peter should have understood this, at least to some degree and should not have been urging him to abandon doing his duty.

Our Lord recognised where he was, he accurately understood his situation, was not frightened to face the unpalatable truth and did his duty by accepting his responsibility and not running away.

Our Lord did not spend his time moaning that life should be easy and problem free.  That is part of what he means by saying that all his followers need to take up the cross.  In another place he explains that this burden will be light.  By doing our duty, confronting our problems and suffering in a spirit of faith, we might seem initially to be losing our life, but in fact we shall find it.  The one certain way to be unhappy is to dedicate ourselves selfishly to the pursuit of happiness.  Love, service and faith bring happiness and hope.

The rewards which will follow our striving are out of this world.  What will a man gain if he wins the whole world and suffers the loss of his soul (a better translation than “ruins his life”).

Our hope for the future, in this life and the next, is real because the Son of Man with his Father will reward each of us according to our behaviour.  And good behaviour sometimes means doing the hard thing, coping with our problems and copping our share of trouble and suffering.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.