August 30, 2020

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Do I Carry or Drag the Cross?”

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

In last Sunday’s Gospel Our Lord called Peter “blessed” and designated him as the “rock,” upon which the Church would be built. Today Our Lord calls him “Satan.” Why this dramatic reversal?

Jesus was speaking of his approaching passion and death in Jerusalem. The apostles expected that he was making his way there to establish his glorious rule as Messiah. But Jesus would not be that kind of Messiah. He is the Suffering Servant, a message that surely bewildered and grieved the apostles. It is here that the newly established leader of the apostolic band speaks up. St. Peter decides that he is going to “straighten out” Our Lord. He would have none of this talk about suffering and death. But this is a profound mistake, a serious misreading of God’s plan. He reveals how far he is from really understanding Christ.

The Lord sets Peter straight: “Get behind me, Satan!” he says. You are a hindrance to me. You are not on the side of God, but of men. Origen, one of the Church’s earliest theologians suggested that Jesus is saying to Peter: “You are to follow me in the way I choose, not to try to lead me in the way you would like me to go.” St. Augustine wondered if in some way Jesus was mentally transported back to his temptation in the desert. Satan is at it again—this time through my friend Peter.

Peter had to learn that it is impossible to embrace Jesus without embracing the cross as well. The Catechism teaches us that “the way of perfection passes by way of the cross.” Peter was not alone in his resistance to the cross. We too are inclined to shun the cross; and yet there is no escaping that the cross is a part of life. It is what we do with it that make all the difference. Cardinal Carlo Martini observed: “We see the cross in our churches. We put up crosses in our homes. We wear them on our bodies, but often without the courage to carry our crosses together with Christ.”

Uniting ourselves to Christ, the cross has the power to shape and transform our lives. I knew a Religious Sister whose extreme physical disabilities could have made her depressed and angry, but she lit up the room with her joy. She carried her cross. She did not drag it along in bitterness. The cross had not only shaped her life but transformed it.

Life gives us other examples: The blind person who develops a keen sense of listening to others; the handicapped person, like the Sister I knew, who empathizes with others who suffer; the recovering alcoholic who is sensitized to those who struggle with addiction; the parent of a special needs child who inspires others to greater love; those who have experienced the pain of broken and abusive relationships who become “wounded healers.”

Today’s Gospel challenges us to ask ourselves: Have crosses shaped and transformed my life? Do I carry my cross or do I drag it through life? Let us ask for the grace not to flee from the cross but to embrace it, as did Our Lady and the saints. If you carry the cross courageously, said St. Jean Vianney, “it will carry you to heaven.”