HOMILY SUNDAY 22 – A
“Passio” and the Cross
(Jeremiah 20:7-9; Psalm 63; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27)
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“If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him take up his cross and follow me.”
What a strange invitation from someone who is looking for followers. Certainly, it is not coming from someone who wants to be popular. Yet that invitation is at the core of what Jesus is about – revealing to the world the unconditional love of God. And to be part of that great adventure, we must take up our cross and follow him.
It is rather sad that those who are most ready to willingly, if also wrongly and mistakenly, give up their lives for a cause are radicalized fundamentalists who are ready to do violence in the name of religion in order to be considered martyrs. As an inter-net posting from the Middle East put it, “You only die once – why not make it martyrdom?”
It is obvious then, that Peter in the Gospel is not the only one who does not understand what Jesus is asking and why he is asking it. The kind of cross that Jesus is talking about, and the way he wants us to respond to his invitation, is so far from that mistaken notion of martyrdom that Jesus could tell Peter his way of thinking was closer to Satan’s way than God’s way.
What then is God’s way as lived out by Jesus? It is what is called the Paschal mystery that Jesus came to accomplish which would reveal to the world the true nature of God as totally non-violent, compassionate and merciful. That is also the opposite of the false gods that so much of the world worships – possessions, prestige, power and pleasure at all costs.
The Paschal Mystery that Jesus lived out meant included six distinct stages: passion, death, resurrection, appearances to his friends to teach them to grieve his loss, ascension into heaven and finally, the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost.
To follow Jesus, we are to take up our cross and follow him through our own Paschal Mystery experience. That means being aware of our life’s hurts (our passion); feeling the losses (our deaths); realizing we are survivors (our resurrection); learning to grieve our losses (our appearances); forgiving our abusers (our ascension) and finally, experiencing a new life of freedom, peace and joy (our Pentecost).
Ron Rolheiser, Oblate writer and theologian, points out that the Latin word for passion is passio, which has the meaning of passivity. From the time that Jesus was arrested in the garden to his death on the cross Jesus did not do anything. Everything was done to him. Yet during those last 18 hours of his time here on earth, he did more to redeem us, by his passivity, than during all of his active ministry.
That is the secret of the kingdom of God, and the secret to his teaching to take up our cross and follow him. That very open secret is accepting and undergoing suffering as he did, without resentment and bitterness but rather with unconditional love as pure forgiveness. Then our suffering can connect with his, become redemptive suffering, and help break the cycle of violence in the world.
Centuries before Jesus, the prophet Jeremiah experienced that same reality in his own way. He accepted to speak the truth to a sinful Hebrew nation about their infidelity to their covenant with God, and received only ridicule and contempt for his efforts. Yet there was a burning compulsion within him that kept him faithful to his task. There was no glory, no promise of martyrdom for him – just deep faith in God, God’s call, and the mission that God gave him. He was taking up his cross to follow that call.
In the second reading, St. Paul invites the Romans, and us, to do the same – to offer our bodies as holy sacrifices. We are to go as far as to change our belief systems about what is truly important in life, if necessary, and certainly change our behaviour to do God’s will, and not our own, if need be.
Step 11 of A.A. resonates perfectly with this teaching: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, seeking only the knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry it out.”
Florence Lombardi, a theologian in Eastern Canada, relates a story of an atheist professor who had a religious sister in his class. When she once tried to speak of sacred art, he shouted at her not to bring any of that religious stuff in his class, and even rudely punned that he would have “none of that.”
Her response was to realize that this professor needed healing, and she started to pray for him. Years later, at a party on a balcony, he got drunk and started to fall to what would surely have been his death, when he felt an invisible hand hold him up and restrain him from falling. Looking up, he saw what seemed to be his best self looking back at him, and had the impression that the God he did not believe in was telling him that he loved him too much to let him go on living as he was.
That sparked a profound spiritual conversion for him. He actually went to the seminary and became a pastor. When he bumped into that same sister years later, he recounted to her his conversion experience. She replied simply, “It’s about time – I have been praying for you for fourteen years.”
That sister, instead of reacting negatively, took up her cross to follow Jesus, and prayed for this man who had hurt her. That led to a major change of mind and behaviour on his part, so that now he could also pick up his cross and follow Jesus.
The Eucharist that we celebrate today is a participation in that unconditional love of Jesus on the cross, revealing who God truly is to us, and forgiving all those who are crucifying him.
May our celebration empower us to transform our beliefs if need be, change our behaviour, take up our cross and follow Jesus through our own Paschal Mystery and passivity to new life.
