22A.    Jeremiah 20:7-9.  Jeremiah does not want to announce to the people what God is proclaiming to them because the people reject what he is saying by mocking him, laughing at him, deriding him and reproaching him.  On the one hand, it gives him so much pain to proclaim the word of the Lord; but, on the other hand, even greater pain to hold God’s message within himself without proclaiming it.  This Sunday’s message is that all too often what popular opinion or culture holds is at complete odds with what God thinks and believes.  That opposition can make it very difficult and uncomfortable for those who side with God and have to live in a world that is apathetic, or even hostile, to what God thinks.

Matthew 16:21-27.  Jesus, knowing what will happen to him, tells his disciples what to expect.  Peter, being so much a part of the world around him, expects Jesus to militarily reestablish Jewish rule over Israel.  He remembers how, after Jesus had miraculously fed the great crowd (Jn. 6:15), they wanted to make him king.  He did not know that Jesus’ kingdom does not belong to this world, as just another worldly king (Jn. 18:36).  Peter does not realize that what he was saying was a great temptation for Jesus because Jesus knew well ahead of time how fearsome his passion and death would be (Lk. 22:42-44).  So Jesus “turned and 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.”  Jesus, in his humanity, was genuinely being tempted daily by the way the world thinks.  He was human in every way, except for sin, but still felt the great tug of temptation. (Hb. 2:17-18; 4:15)

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”  To follow Jesus means to give up one’s own will and submit to God’s Will for us.  If we pursue our own will, we will lose our life forever in hell; if we pursue God’s will for us, we will live forever in heaven.  “For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”  As we live, so shall we be judged.

Romans 12:1-2.  The Old Testament Mosaic Law commanded the Hebrews to offer up the bodies of various animals as sacrifices on various occasions and for various reasons.  Now Jesus calls upon us to offer up ourselves: our wills, words, actions and thoughts, to God “as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship,” instead of the former physical sacrifice of the bodies of animals.

“Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”  To think as God thinks and not as human beings do calls upon us to be transformed by a renewal of our minds through the power of the Holy Spirit.  As in the first reading from Jeremiah this world has a different point of view, a different set of values, and a different way of reasoning than that of God.  To discern the Will of God we must live in the mind of the Holy Spirit so to belong to what is of God and not of this world.  “At that time Jesus answered, “I give you praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” (Mt. 11:25)  We must once again become like little children who learn what life is really all about from God our Father, being newly brought up in the ways of God.

21A23.   Isaiah 22:19-23.    Because Shebna, the Hebrew king’s prime minister, advised the king to go against God’s will, God replaced him with Eliakim.  Eliakim was to be obeyed because God gave him the authority to speak for God in God’s place.  When Eliakim spoke or commanded, it was as if God himself were speaking or commanding.

Matthew 16:13-20.     Jesus “asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’” They gave various answers but Peter, under the influence of God the Father, said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus then chose that moment to commission to Peter the authority to be the head or pope of his church here on earth.  “’Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.”  I believe that Jesus only wanted those who were open to accepting that he was the Messiah to hear that he laid claim to being the Messiah.  Those worthy of knowing that he was the Messiah were those who were willing to have an ear open to what God had to say and so were candidates to know divine truth.  They are people of faith.

Romans 11:33-36.  “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!”  God is infinitely beyond anything we humans can think or do.  In his generous love for us he gives us much.  However, we must always understand that no matter how much he gives us there is so much more that is not ours to have.  What we do have is from our glorious God, is wondrously magnificent!

21A20.   Isaiah 22:19-23.   Shebna’s position was like that of a steward, who because the king could not tend to everything was the second in command.  The Lord obviously did not feel that Shebna was living up to his responsibilities and so appointed Eliakim to take his place.  The Lord said, “I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder. Now he was the new overseer or steward, and not Shebna.  The Church places this reading here in anticipation to the fact that Jesus would assign Peter to be as a steward to God the King and no longer to the Jewish religious authorities.  Since Jesus would no longer be in this world as someone who would be seen or heard as he was when he was here in the flesh, he saw the need to establish a steward or overseer in his place.  Someone who could be seen and heard as another person of this world, Peter the first in the line of succession of the popes, Jesus’ supervisors or managers of the Church, as one visibly tending to work that Jesus had done while he was visibly present in this world.

Matthew 16:13-20.  Jesus questions his disciples, as to how people saw him and then as to how they saw him.  “Simon Peter said in reply, ‘You are the Christ, Son of the living God.’ Jesus said to him in reply, ‘Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah.  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.’”  Then Jesus made Peter the steward or pope, the first of the popes till Jesus comes the second time at the end of this world and brings all that is his to heaven.  Jesus then says to Peter and so to his successors, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  The measure of that ‘whatever’ is what Jesus had just said to Peter.  In effect what Jesus is saying is not what ‘flesh and blood’ reveals to you but what my heavenly Father reveals is what you bound or loose on earth.  The Church is bound to the Will of God and that Will alone.  This can never be otherwise.   The human “flesh and blood” of this earth must be bound to whatever “my heavenly Father” reveals to you.  The head is Jesus and his body, the Church obeys him.  Even though Jesus appoints visible stewards and overseers, Jesus, though not visible, is still here as the one and only Lord and Ruler of his people.  The stewards are never the king but only servants of the king.  As example to us Jesus went to the mountain to pray and then brought back his Father’s Will to the Church he was establishing.  God supports the ‘master of the palace’ or good steward only as that steward represents his king and does not go out on his own apart from God, who is the king.

Romans 11:33-36.  “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!”  Only those who listen to his wisdom and not to what is only ‘flesh and blood’ can bring God into the life of the faithful.

21A   Isaiah 22:19-23.  Shebna was the king’s steward who used his position for his own personal gain at the expense of others who were not in a position to defend themselves.  Yahweh has Isaiah deliver his message that Shebna is to be replaced by Eliakim who will use his authority, represented by the keys, as steward to faithfully serve the king and the kingdom.

Matthew 16:13-20.  Jesus asks who do people say the Son of Man is. The replies are that people think he is one of the many important Jewish religious figures of the past, but Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus comments that the answer Peter has given came to him from God and not any human source.  All good and true things of any kind radically, though often remotely, come from God, the only source of what is genuinely good and true.  Jesus says, “You are Peter (which name means rock), and upon this rock I will build my church,” and he guarantees that “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” The guarantee that the Church will prevail until the end of time is not based on Peter’s strength or wisdom but on God’s.  Jesus continues, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  The giving of authority to the Church assumes that the power to bind or to loose is exercised under the supremacy of God’s Will.  Some claim that this authority was given personally to Peter only.  However, that would mean that Jesus is saying he will build his church on a man who is dead and, if only he has the authority to lead the church, therefore on an authority which is dead.  To the contrary Jesus has given the authority, symbolized by the keys, to whoever takes the position of authority that Jesus has established over his church.  The Church, with pope, who now has the keys, as its leader, is the steward to the king who is Jesus.  Peter just happened to be the first person to hold that position of authority that we call the papacy.  Because Peter, as the first pope, has been given the visible authority to lead the Church on earth under the spiritual guidance of God, Jesus says to Peter in Jn. 21: 15c, 16c, 17c, “Feed my lambs;”  “Tend my sheep;”  “Feed my sheep.”

Jesus tells his disciples “to tell no one that he was the Christ.”  To make the claim to be Messiah to people not properly prepared or disposed in a timely way would only create barriers to their believing in him.

Romans 11:33-36.  Oh! How magnificent is our God!  Oh! How spectacular!  “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” “How unsearchable his ways!”  His ways are forever and ever beyond our minds!  We are finite; He, infinite!  He is God; we are not!  We glory in the God who is our God, over us, OUR GOD OVER US, LOVING US!  “From him and through him and for him are all things.  To him be glory forever. Amen.”  When we give praise and adoration, we come to him mostly from our heart and little from our mind.  It is the pouring out of our hearts and with little use of the grasping, comprehension and understanding by our minds.  We do not so much take hold of him but we rejoice that he takes a hold of us through his omnipotence!

20A23.      Isaiah 56:1, 6-7.     When God created humanity, he created all peoples to be his people.  In making Hebrews his Chosen People from among all peoples, the Lord was making Hebrews to be a light to shine in the darkness to draw all peoples to himself.  My understanding of what the Lord says here is that all peoples are called to “join themselves to the Lord” by holding to his covenant, which is to say to be converted to becoming religiously practicing Jews.

Matthew 15:21-28.  Jesus was Jewish and was raised in his humanity to be thoroughly Jewish.  Jews traditionally saw themselves as God’s only People.  As such Jews viewed other peoples as worthless because they were seen to worship false gods.  At first Jesus was not receptive to accepting the plea of the non-Jewish or goy Canaanite woman because he saw her as not being worthy to receive the good things of the Lord that Jewish tradition said were only meant for God’s (Jewish)  People.  Jesus “said in reply, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’” My understanding is that the Holy Spirit moves the Canaanite woman to express great faith, which in turn requires of Jesus to grant to her her request.  My understanding is that the Holy Spirit was teaching Jesus in his humanity that all peoples are God’s People, not just Jewish people.

Romans 11:13-15, 29-32.     Paul reflects on the fact, though many gentiles were accepting Jesus as their Savior, the majority of Jews had not.  In their rejection of Jesus, all the greater was God’s loving mercy poured out upon them, as God had been generous with his mercy toward the Gentiles.  To be God’s People means to belong to God and nothing else.

20A20.   Isaiah 56:1, 6-7.   “The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, ministering to him, loving the name of the Lord, and becoming his servants,” “them I will bring to my mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer.”  “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”   I assume that what Isaiah meant was that God was inviting all peoples to become Jews when he says for all who “hold to my covenant” that the Lord made to the original Israelites.  Nevertheless, now all peoples are invited to become God’s Chosen People.   Today’s Ps. 67 says: “May all the peoples praise you” and “may all the ends of the earth fear him.”  I understand the word ‘fear’ here means that all people should respect God as the God over us all and as the infinite God who created us to love as he loves.

Matthew 15:21-28.  This passage often scandalizes people.  The point of the Church’s including this scripture is that the invitation to salvation is extended to all peoples.  However, it raises two other concerns.  First, when the Canaanite woman for her daughter’s sake pleads to Jesus, “Lord, help me,” Jesus answers: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Immediately because of her faith, Jesus acquiesces to her request.  In Matthew 10:5a-6 Jesus said to the twelve disciples, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.  Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Jesus as the Messiah of the Jews saw his calling to be only to the Jews.  Jesus was raised Jewish.  The Jews saw themselves as people separated from all others, singled out to be the only People chosen by God. Jesus reflects his childhood upbringing in his initial answer to the Canaanite woman. Secondly, in his humanity Jesus grew and matured as any other human being does.  Luke 2:52 says: “and Jesus advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”  Hebrews 5:8 says, “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for who obey him.”  I see this event in the life of Jesus as a learning experience for him.  Not only did the Holy Spirit inspire the Canaanite woman to say, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters;” but also the Spirit inspired Jesus to  respond, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it done for you as you wish.”  Jesus, in his humanity, was learning every day; in his divinity, he knew, knows and will know all forever.  The Church’s magisterium teaches that Jesus was one divine person but had two natures, the human and the divine. Some may be tempted to think that the above means that he was half- human and half-divine.  NO!  Jesus was one divine person that had two natures.  Like the Trinity this is one of those divine mysteries that we only superficially fathom. Let the example of Jesus help us in our humanity to learn every day, especially in the spiritual realm.

Romans 11:13-15, 29-32.  Paul gives us something of a maze here.   My understanding is that the sinfulness of the sinner invites God’s mercy.  As the Gentiles received God’s mercy in their sinfulness so may the Jews receive God’s mercy in their sinfulness, their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah.`  “For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.”  We are all sinners seeking to be saints.

20A   Isaiah 56:1, 6-7.  Their captors, having themselves been defeated, can no longer hold the Israelites captive.  A remnant of the Israelites returns to restore Zion.  However, not only are the Israelites invited to build Zion.  In Isaiah56:3a, b, we read, “Let not the foreigner say, when he would join himself to the Lord, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”  As long as Gentiles become good Jews, abiding faithfully in the Law, they will make themselves acceptable to the Lord.  “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.  Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel: Others will I gather to him besides those already gathered.” (Isaiah 56:7c-8)

Matthew 15:21-28.  When sending out the twelve Apostles to bring people to believe in him, Jesus instructs them saying, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.  Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.” (Mt. 10:5b, 6)  In Mt. 18:17, Jesus says, “If he refuses to listen even to the Church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” To be treated as a Gentile means to be treated as one who is not chosen to be one of his own people, which is to say that what belongs to God’s people belongs to them and only to them and not to the people who have not been chosen.  This is all to give a background as to why Jesus says to the Canaanite woman in our Gospel reading for this Sunday, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”   In summary, in the initial stages of his ministry, Jesus sees his mission as to only the Jews loyal to Jerusalem.

In Exodus 5:1b, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and say, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Let my people go.”  Further on in Exodus 5:3, Moses and Aaron reply to Pharaoh’s negative answer, saying, “The God of the Hebrews has sent us word.”  The Old Testament indicates clearly that God had chosen his own people from among many peoples here on earth and not chosen all peoples.  He refers to himself as the God of Israel or of the Hebrews and not as the God all peoples.  That was to come much later but not at the time of the exodus.  This sense of being separate from the other peoples of the earth and chosen apart from other peoples by God was taught to Jesus all through his growing up as a young Jew.  In his humanness that was what he learned and became a part of his ministry.  In Lk. 2:52, we read, “And Jesus advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”  Jesus was truly God and truly man.  His divinity had to hold itself back to allow his humanity to be truly human in the way all human beings are.  Otherwise, his divinity, being as utterly awesome as it is, would have obliterated his humanity. Later, taught by his heavenly Father, his idea of his ministry would expand.  His Father teaches the man Jesus through the faith of the Canaanite woman in this Sunday’s Gospel reading and the faith of the centurion (Mt. 8:5-13) that not only does ministry call forth faith but also faith (the rich soil), or the preparation God has given to person to believe, calls forth ministry.  Wherever one finds the willingness to believe, one ought to minister.

Romans 11:13-15, 29-32.  In Paul’s ministry he finds that the majority of the Jews reject Jesus as the Messiah but many Gentiles accept him as the Messiah.  Paul expresses the hope that the Jews, seeing that the Gentiles have accepted Jesus, will make them jealous of the Gentiles and, by the merciful grace of God, lead them to be obedient to the call of God to accept Jesus as their Messiah too.

 

 

 

19A23.      1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a.    The Almighty God is not God because of his might or limitless power but simply because he is God with no need to prove anything to anyone.   We only need to recognize God in his glorious goodness.  We ought to allow God to be the God he wants to be and really is; and not try to impose on him any of our notions or ideas of what we feel or demand that he be.  Our God is a God whose love for us calls upon him to be eternally active and present in our lives.  How wonderful it is to have him as our God!

Matthew 14:22-33.  Jesus “went up on the mountain by himself to pray.”  Instead of seeking to rest after a hard day’s work, he sought to nourish himself by drawing close to God his Father.  After he was finished his praying, he apparently sought to join up with his disciples despite the fact that it was night and they were out at sea with waves being churned by the winds.  His disciples were terrified at the sight of “him walking on the sea.” “At once Jesus spoke to them, ‘Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.’”  Peter responded by not only not being afraid but audaciously calling upon Jesus to “command me to come to you on the water.”  The mighty sound of “how strong the wind was” overwhelmed his self-confidence and he became frightened and began to sink.  He had put his faith in himself and not in the Lord.  Recognizing the power of God at work in Jesus, his disciples said, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”  This same thing is said of Jesus by the Roman soldiers at Jesus’ death on the cross when there came up a great darkness and an earthquake.  (Matthew 27:54)

Romans 9:1-5.  Paul exclaims, “I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart” because the Israelites had not accepted Jesus as their Messiah, their Christ.  How infinite is the love of our God who offered up his Son to throw open the gates of heaven so that that we could live in his love!  Yet so many walk away from that love!

19A20     1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a.    “The Lord said to Elijah, ‘Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord; the Lord will be passing by.’”  Jesus also went to the mountain to pray.  Traditionally the mountain represented the highest point man could get closest to the Lord and it was the lowest point to which the Lord would come down.  Next the Lord manifests four earthly phenomena that might indicate the presence of the Lord.  We might think that the mighty, all-powerful Lord would be in the strong, heavy wind that crushed the rocks OR in the earthquake OR in the fire but the Lord was not in any of them.  He was in the tiny whispering sound.  Elijah, a man of God, knew that was the sign of the presence of the Lord. “Elijah hid his face in his cloak” because he knew that no one could look directly at God and live.  “One of the hardest lessons we have to learn is that God is in the quiet that is ever around us, working with us, for us and with us, without any visible or audible indicator of activity.”(Christopher  Davis)

Matthew 14:22-33.  “Afterwards Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side.”  “After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.”  Somewhat before dawn, Jesus came walking on the sea in the midst of a storm.  “When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.  ‘It is a ghost,’ they said, and they cried out in fear.  At once Jesus spoke to them, ‘Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.’” I think that it is Peter’s natural bravado that impels him to say to Jesus, “Command me to come to you on the water.”  As long as Peter’s faith is in Jesus, he walks on the water; but he lets his faith be sucked out of him by the forces of this world.  Then he begins to sink and cries out, “Lord, save me!”  Jesus “caught Peter, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’”  Much later Peter would again doubt when he was in the courtyard of Pilate.   Our humanness has a natural power over us.  While in this world, we must endlessly go to the Lord to imbue us with his spiritual power. Otherwise this world will bury us with its natural power.  Struck and astounded with his walking on the stormy water, they proclaim his divinity.  However, much later when he is taken down dead from the cross, the disciples hid shivering with fear.  Yet again the Lord goes and rescues them from their lack of faith.  Faith is living always with the Lord who shares his life with us.  Paul writes in Romans 8:11: “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”

Romans 9:1-5.  Paul says: “I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart,” because the Israelites have cut themselves off from their Messiah.  Through all their history the Jews belonged to God and God to them.  Jesus, the Messiah, came not only in the flesh but in Jewish flesh.  Ours is the choice also.  To whom or what do we belong?

19A   1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a.  Not in the spectacular demonstrations of natural might: the strong and heavy wind; the crushing rocks; the earthquake; not even the fire; but rather in the tiny whispering sound does God make his presence known!   Elijah stood at the entrance of the cave where he had previously taken shelter, but now with his face hidden in the cloak, for no one can see the face of the Lord and live.  In this world our God is often found in the tiny whispering sound because our life in prayer has given us the ears to hear.

Matthew 14:22-33.  Jesus dismissed the crowds after having fed them; yet he himself hungers for the presence of his Father.  So “he went up the mountain to pray.”  Jesus in his divinity was always united with his divinity and so did not need to pray but Jesus, in his humanity, teaches us that we in our humanity need to unite ourselves with the divinity, who is the only true source of goodness forever.  Jesus, truly man, by his incessant desire to pray teaches all humanity what it needs to know: with God we have everything; without God we have nothing.

The disciples were in a boat a few miles offshore that “was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.”  Jesus “came toward them walking on the sea.  When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.” “At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”  When we take Jesus as our strength, there can be no fear or worry.  Peter is overwhelmed with the sense of strength that the Lord gives him and so asks for the privilege to likewise walk on the water as the Lord does.  “But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened.”  Peter did not remain in God’s strength but naturally went back to his own inadequacy.  Don’t we all do the same?  We can all slip back into ourselves and out of a life dependent on the Lord.  Thanks be to the God who never leaves us, if we but call back to him for his help.  “Lord, save me,” and he does reach out to let his divine life surge back into us again to save us from our little faith in him. Our natural instinct is to live our lives within ourselves, independently and without God.  However, without God we sink into difficulties and problems we cannot solve on our own.

Like the transfiguration, Jesus has provided yet another sign of his divinity.  So “they did him homage, saying, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God.’”

Romans 9:1-5.  Paul writes, “I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart” “for the sake of my own people.”  The great majority of his own heritage, the Jewish people, did not accept Jesus as their Messiah and God.  They had received so very much from God as the Chosen People but they did not choose God when he came to them, Jesus who lived among them.  “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.” (Jn. 1:11.)  “From them, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.”  Jesus was a Jew as were his mother and adopting father.  The vast majority of the people that God chose rejected the God that chose them to be his people.  Will we reject him too, or all too half-heartedly, accept him?   Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, our God who is blessed and cherished forever.