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The text that guided the homily was:\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n\n- This is Fr. Roger Landry and it\u2019s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday, in which we see a dramatic turnaround from what we considered a week ago. In last Sunday\u2019s Gospel, Jesus called Simon Peter \u201cthe Rock on whom I will build by Church\u201d and promised that \u201cthe gates of Hell will not prevail against it.\u201d Today, Jesus Jesus calls Peter, \u201cSatan,\u201d and tells him, essentially, that the gates of Hell are prevailing against him. Why does this happen? Because Peter was rejecting Jesus\u2019 words that he would suffer, be killed and be raised: \u201cGod forbid it, Lord!,\u201d he shouted. \u201cThis must never happen to you!\u201d We might think that this was just the concern of a friend trying to prevent Jesus from suffering harm, but Jesus, the Lord, saw something much deeper. The reason why he called him \u201cSatan,\u201d was because Peter at that moment was, without realizing it, playing the part of Satan the tempter, effectively trying to steer him away from doing his Father\u2019s will. The reason why Jesus said, \u201cGet behind me!,\u201d is because Peter was trying to\u00a0lead<\/em>Jesus rather than to\u00a0follow<\/em>\u00a0him, and no creature can ever do that to the Creator, and no disciple can ever do that to the Master. Jesus very directly summed up what was the cause of Peter\u2019s fall: \u201cYou are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.\u201d<\/li>\n
- As challenging as that was, Jesus then upped the ante. It was tough enough to accept \u201cthe way God thinks\u201d when that meant that the \u201cChrist, the Son of the Living God\u201d (as Peter confessed him last week) was going to undergo great suffering and be crucified. But Jesus said that if we wanted to be his disciples, we would need to undergo the same. This is God\u2019s standard for us, too. \u201cIf anyone wishes to become my disciple,\u201d Jesus tells us at the end of this Sunday\u2019s Gospel, \u201che must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.\u201d Each of us is, and want to be ever better, a follower of Jesus. We want our friends and family members to be disciples of Jesus. But we cannot be his disciples unless we do what Jesus indicates \u2014 deny ourselves rather than affirm ourselves, pick up our Cross daily, and follow Jesus rather than doing our own thing, which means thinking as he thinks, willing as he wills, choosing as he chooses, serving as he serves and loving as he loves. That\u2019s the challenge he puts before us.<\/li>\n
- 2000 years after Jesus\u2019 crucifixion, we are not shocked as St. Peter was when Jesus gave the first of three prophecies of what would happen to him on Good Friday, because we know that it turns out well on the third day. But most of us are still shocked when Jesus says to us that in order to be his disciple we must deny ourselves, die to ourselves through the Cross and follow him along the path to death in order to live. And we\u2019re even more shocked when Jesus asks those we care about to follow him along the path of suffering. We still are tempted to say, \u201cGod forbid, Lord, that any such thing as pain and suffering, of the Cross, happen to me or my loved ones!\u201d Because we struggle to think as God thinks, we\u2019re tempted to water down what Jesus says are preconditions to being his follower. We think all Jesus is asking us to do is to \u201coffer up\u201d daily contradictions and hardships, but his first listeners would never have missed what he was saying when he mentioned that the only way they could follow him is through denying themselves to the extent that they would pick up their Cross. It would be as if he said to us today, \u201cStrap yourself into the electric chair!,\u201d because in the ancient world, the cross was used exclusively for the gruesome capital punishment of crucifying someone. For Jesus to say that they needed to pick up the Cross and follow him meant that they need to die to themselves on the Cross just like Jesus did on his. As St. Paul, who picked up his cross every day after his conversion and followed the Lord, once wrote: \u201cI have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me\u201d (Gal 2:19-20), Jesus wants us to be able to say the same thing. It\u2019s only when we have denied ourselves and affirmed God, it\u2019s only when we have in fact died to ourselves so that Christ may live, it\u2019s only when we\u2019ve \u201clost\u201d our life for the sake of Christ and his Gospel, that we will \u201csave\u201d our life and be able to follow Christ to the joyful risen existence he suffered and died to give us.\u00a0This is certainly not man\u2019s wisdom, but it is God\u2019s wisdom! <\/em>The worldly think the Cross is exclusively an evil to be eliminated in the pursuit to maximize pleasure and minimize pain, but a Christian looks at suffering not simply as pain but as suffering that can redeem us and others. The world looks at the Cross as a way of abnegation, of giving up good things, of losing out on good experiences, but a Christian sees it not so much as a path of renunciation and agony, but a way to unleash love, to make us humble and form us to be Good Samaritans when we see others suffering. The way of the Cross is fundamentally a yes, not a no. Just as by Christ\u2019s stripes we were healed (Is 53:5), so by our own stripes, our own crosses, we can make up what is lacking in Christ\u2019s sufferings for the sake of his body the Church (Col 1:24).<\/li>\n
- Jesus \u2014\u00a0great teacher that he is \u2014\u00a0sums up the contrast between God\u2019s wisdom and man\u2019s when he says, \u201cFor what would it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?\u201d So many in our day strive after money, power, pleasure and prestige. Jesus is telling us that even if we were able to have all of these in abundance and more, it wouldn\u2019t be worth it if in the process we squandered our soul. This is the great \u201cFaustian bargain\u201d \u2014 to use the image from the 19th\u00a0century German poet Goethe \u2014 the quintessential temptation of the devil. Just as Satan tried to tempt Jesus in the desert when he took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said, \u201cAll these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me,\u201d so Satan tries to do the same with us. Jesus\u2019 response then is what he wants ours to be now, \u201cAway with you, Satan, for it is written, \u2018Worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone\u2019\u201d (Mt 4:8-10). That\u2019s the reason why Jesus called Peter \u201cSatan,\u201d because Peter was tempting Jesus to put his physical health and temporal well-being ahead of his soul and eternal well-being, to live for the present rather than forever \u2014\u00a0just as Satan tried to do to Jesus in the desert. Jesus makes plain that it profits a person nothing to gain everything the world can offer if he forfeits his eternal life in exchange.<\/li>\n
- Every time we go to Mass, God strengthens us in this vocation. As we enter into his passion, death and resurrection, as we receive his Body and Blood that he offered on the Cross for us, we are filled with him so that, together with him on the inside, we can deny ourselves of both bad things and good, seize our Cross each day, and follow him, all the way to the Father\u2019s eternal right. This Sunday is an occasion for us to ask him who has chosen us and given us the vocation to follow him to think not as human beings do, but as God does, to put that divine wisdom into practice, and to give our life in sharing that path to life with our family members, friends, and even the whole world.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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The Gospel on which the homily was based was:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n