August 30, 2026
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 124
Reading 1
You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.
I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (2b) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
for your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Reading 2
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
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.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our hearts,
that we may know what is the hope
that belongs to our call.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
He 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."
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
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."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/083026.cfm
Commentary on
Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27
In last week’s Gospel, we saw the disciples riding high.
They had, through Peter, acknowledged that Jesus, their teacher and friend, was
no less than the long-awaited Messiah-King of Israel:
You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. (Matt
16:16)
It must have been a really exciting moment for them. This,
in turn, brought from Jesus a commission of the highest responsibility to Peter
and his fellow disciples. Through Jesus, they were to be given the authority of
God himself within their future communities. Peter himself is spoken of as a
rock, firm and unshakeable, on which the ekklesia, the Church
community, will be built.
It is hard to imagine that this was not a moment of
particular joy and satisfaction for the disciples. They now were thinking that
Jesus, in line with Jewish expectations, would be a glorious and powerful king.
And they, of course, as his followers and companions would have a special share
in the glory and privileges that went with it. (In fact later, would not two of
them go so far as to ask, rather cheekily, and behind their brothers’ backs,
for special places in the Kingdom, to sit on the right and left of Jesus?)
A shock
However, the euphoria was not to last very long. Very soon after this:
Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to
Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief
priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.
This, undoubtedly, comes as a terrible shock. This was not
at all part of the scenario for the coming of the Messiah! What is worse, the
agents of Jesus’ humiliation and death will not be some hostile outsiders (like
the pagan and barbaric Romans), but the leaders and most distinguished people
of their own community. The elders, chief priests and scribes were the people
who formed the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews in Palestine.
Furthermore, it would happen in Jerusalem, the holy city,
the site of the Temple where God dwelt among his people. It might also be
remembered, however, that Jerusalem was the city where prophets died and Jesus
had said to the Pharisees:
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets
and stones those who are sent to it! (Matthew 23:37)
The disciples must have felt very disturbed and confused
indeed.
A protest
So, it is not surprising that at this point, Peter, still flush with his
newly-acquired status, takes Jesus to one side, speaking to him almost on equal
terms:
God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.
How can this happen to the Messiah-King of Israel?
The angry reaction of Jesus must have come as somewhat
unexpected, to say the least. Turning to face Peter, Jesus says:
Get behind me, Satan!
These are strong words for someone who just now was being
given leadership of the community Jesus would leave behind. It is not to be
understood that Peter is literally a demon, but the disciple’s words are
understood as a real temptation to Jesus to turn away from the path he is to
follow. Unwittingly and with the best of intentions, Peter is doing the devil’s
work—trying to steer Jesus away from the path laid out for him by his Father.
How often have we been such a temptation or stumbling block to others? Perhaps
more often than we care to think.
You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind
not on divine things but on human things.
Peter is seen as an obstacle, a scandal (Greek, skandalon),
a stone in one’s path which causes one to stumble. Ironically, the ‘rock’ which
Jesus just now had said would be the foundation of his ‘church’ is now seen as
an obstacle to Jesus’ work and mission!
The mind of Christ
Jesus is angry for, though his disciples may have acknowledged that he
is the Messiah, they clearly have no idea whatever what kind of Messiah-King
Jesus is going to be. They are, as he says, thinking in purely human terms and
have not yet got “the mind of Christ” (Phil 2:5).
They shall have to change completely their ideas about what
the Messiah is going to be like. He will not be a great political and military
leader who will sweep away all of Israel’s enemies. Even after the resurrection
they were still thinking in those terms.
Said the two fellows on their way to Emmaus, not realising
the irony of their words:
…we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
(Luke 24:21)
And, the disciples asked Jesus as he prepared to leave them
at the Ascension:
Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom
to Israel? (Acts 1:6)
Yes, Jesus will be a King, but he will be a King of love, a
King who will rule by serving. Because he loves and serves them, he will, if
necessary, be prepared to die for them, for this is the greatest love that a
person can show for his friends. This is not to say that Jesus wants to die on
the cross, but he is totally prepared to suffer and die, if the service of love
demands it—and it will. Ultimately, the disciples will see that the death of
Jesus was the source of his greatest glory and power:
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth [on
the cross and into glory], will draw all people to myself. (John
12:32)
The prophet’s lot
The other readings today give examples of people who had similar
experiences to Jesus. In the First Reading Jeremiah seems to regret that he was
called by God to be his prophet.
O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have
overpowered me, and you have prevailed.
As a result he became an object of people’s ridicule, a
“laughingstock”. Every time he opened his mouth, he had to warn of
violence and disaster coming on God’s people. In return he got nothing but
insults and derision. He decided he would not speak about God:
I will not mention him or speak any more in his name…
But that did not work because:
…within me there is something like a burning fire shut up
in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
He just had to go on speaking God’s message, which was like
a fire in his heart, to his people whatever the cost to himself. It is a
situation like this which explains why a person would risk insults, suffering
and even death in order to witness to Truth and Love. Many people languishing
in jails today for expressing their religious and political beliefs know this
feeling. We have seen how political or religious dissidents released from jail
show no signs of “conversion” and continue the struggle for human dignity.
It is something which those who see life in terms of material comfort and
power simply cannot understand.
Paul, in the Second Reading, also knew all about this. He
urges his fellow-Christians to offer their:
…bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to
God, which is your reasonable act of worship.
And, they are not to:
…be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the
renewing of the mind, so that [they] may discern what is the
will of God.
They need a “new mind”, the way of thinking which Jesus had
and which Peter certainly did not yet have in today’s Gospel.
Walking with Jesus
Today’s Gospel goes further than just asking us to understand why the
glory of Jesus our King and Lord was to be found through suffering and the
shameful death of the Cross. There is a further call for us to walk the
same road with Jesus:
If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves
and take up their cross and follow me.
Jesus is asking each one of us to dedicate
our lives to totally loving and serving others even, if at times, this involves
misunderstanding, ridicule, pain and even death itself.
It would be altogether wrong to think that Jesus is asking
us to lead miserable lives in order to be good Christians, although one gets
the impression that some people interpret the passage in that way. To follow
Jesus fully, we must be able to see life as he sees it, we must have that “mind
of Christ”.
When we have the mind of Christ, then we can only see our
lives in terms of loving and serving others and not in the pursuit of purely
self-centred or even family-centred ambition. When we have the mind of Christ,
the whole direction of our life changes. Our whole concept of happiness
changes. Jesus is calling us not to a life of sacrifice and suffering, but
rather to a life of total love and freedom. The person who can go to jail for
his beliefs is more free and usually a lot happier than the one who is tied to
the pursuit of material things, social position, pleasure, and the fear of
pain.
“Denying oneself” is not a suppression of one’s personality.
It is rather to let go of one’s ego, so that one can really find oneself.
This is what today’s readings are saying, namely, that Jesus
is calling us to where true success and happiness are. Maybe when we walk the
way of Jesus there will be people who criticise us, think we are stupid, and
even attack us. Yet those who have chosen the way of Jesus again and again
confirm that their lives are full of freedom, happiness, and peace. Isn’t that
what we all would like to experience?
https://sacredspace.com/commentary/oa221/
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening
Prayer
Spirit of
truth, sent by Jesus to guide us to the whole truth, enlighten our minds so
that we may understand the Scriptures. You who overshadowed Mary and made her
fruitful ground where the Word of God could germinate, purify our hearts from
all obstacles to the Word. Help us to learn like her to listen with good and
pure hearts to the Word that God speaks to us in life and in Scripture, so that
we may observe the Word and produce good fruit through our perseverance.
Gospel
Reading – Matthew 16: 21-27
The Context:
Mt 16: 21-27 is
after Peter’s profession of faith (16: 13-20) and before the transfiguration
(17: 1-8) and is strongly connected with these two events. Jesus asks the
twelve to tell him who do people say he is and then wants to know who do the
twelve say he is. Peter replies, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God" (16: 16). Jesus not only accepts this profession of faith, but also
explicitly says that it is God who has revealed his true identity to Peter. Yet
he insists that the disciples must not tell anyone that he is the messiah.
Jesus knows well that this title can be misunderstood, and he does not want to
run the risk. "From that time" (16: 21) he gradually begins to
explain to the twelve what it means to be the messiah; he is the suffering
messiah who will enter into his glory through the cross.
The text we are
considering is divided into two parts. In the first part (vv. 21-23), Jesus
foretells his death and resurrection and shows that he is completely determined
to follow God’s plan for him in spite of Peter’s protestations. In the second
part (vv. 24-27), Jesus shows the consequences of recognizing him as the
Suffering Messiah for his disciples. No one can be his disciple unless he/she
walks the same road.
But Jesus knows well that it is
difficult for the twelve to accept his and their cross, and, to reassure them,
he gives them a foretaste of his resurrection in his transfiguration (17: 1-8).
The Text:
21-23: From
then onwards Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined
to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief
priests and scribes and to be put to death and to be raised up on the third
day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to rebuke him. 'Heaven preserve you,
Lord,' he said, 'this must not happen to you.' But he turned and said to Peter,
'Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because you are thinking
not as God thinks but as human beings do.'
24-27: Then
Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him
renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save
his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.
What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his
life? Or what can anyone offer in exchange for his life? 'For the Son of man is
going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will
reward each one according to his behavior.
A
Moment of Prayerful Silence
so that the Word of God may enter into us and
enlighten our life.
Some
Questions
to help us in our personal reflection.
•
Why does Peter try to deter Jesus from facing
the passion?
•
Why does Jesus call Peter Satan?
•
How do you confront life, with the logic of God
and of Jesus or with human logic and that of Peter?
•
In your concrete everyday life, what does it
mean to lose one’s life for the sake of Jesus?
•
What are your crosses and who are your Peters?
A Key
to the Reading
for those who wish to go deeper into the text
•
"Destined to go to Jerusalem…"
The four verbs "go", "suffer", "be
put to death" and "be raised" (v. 21) are governed by the word
"destined" or "had to." This is a verb, which in the New
Testament has a precise theological meaning. It denotes that it is the will of
God that something happens because it is part of God’s plan of salvation.
The death of Jesus may be seen as the consequence of the
"logic" of the attitude he took towards the institutions of his
people. Like every uncomfortable prophet he was removed. But the New Testament
insists that his death (and resurrection) is part of God’s plan, which Jesus
accepted freely.
•
"You are an obstacle in my path"
Obstacle means hold-up or trap. To be an obstacle means to
confront someone with impediments that would divert that person form the way to
follow. Peter is an obstacle for Jesus because he tries to swerve from the way
of obedience to the will of the Father in order to go an easier way. That is
why Jesus compares him to Satan, who at the beginning of his ministry had
sought to divert Jesus from the path of his mission, proposing an easy
messianic mission (see Mt 4: 1-11).
•
"Anyone who loses his life… will find
it"
Anyone who understands well the
mystery of Jesus and the nature of his mission also understands what it means
to be his disciple. The two things are intimately linked.
Jesus himself lays down three conditions for those who wish
to be his disciples: renunciation of self, the taking up of one’s cross and
following him (v.24). To renounce oneself means not to focus one’s life on
oneself but on God and on the plan of his Reign. This implies an acceptance of
adversity and putting up with difficulties. Jesus himself left us his example
of how to deal with such circumstances. It suffices to imitate him. He does not
compromise his fidelity to the Father and to His Reign, and he remains faithful
even to giving his life. It was precisely thus that he came to the fullness of
life in the resurrection.
Psalm
40
The Invocation for Help of One who has
Remained Faithful to God
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon
a rock, making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth, a song
of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.
Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his
trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods!
Thou hast multiplied, O Lord my God, thy wondrous deeds and thy thoughts toward
us; none can compare with thee!
Were I to
proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be numbered. Sacrifice
and offering thou dost not desire; but thou hast given me an open ear. Burnt
offering and sin offering thou hast not required. Then I said, "Lo, I
come; in the roll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do thy will, O
my God; thy law is within my heart."
I have told the glad news of
deliverance in the great congregation; lo, I have not restrained my lips, as
thou knowest, O Lord.
I have not hid thy saving help within
my heart, I have spoken of thy faithfulness and thy salvation;
I have not concealed thy
steadfast love and thy faithfulness from the great congregation.
Do not thou, O Lord, withhold thy
mercy from me, let thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness ever preserve me!
For evils have encompassed me
without number; my iniquities have overtaken me, till I cannot see; they are
more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help
me!
Let them be put to shame and confusion
altogether who seek to snatch away my life; let them be turned back and brought
to dishonor who desire my hurt! Let them be appalled because of their shame who
say to me, "Aha, Aha!" But may all who seek thee rejoice and be glad in
thee; may those who love thy salvation say continually, "Great is the
Lord!"
As for me, I am poor and needy;
but the Lord takes thought for me. Thou art my help and my deliverer; do not
tarry, O my God!
Closing
Prayer
O God, your
ways are not our ways and your thoughts are not our thoughts. In your plan of
salvation there is also room for the cross. Your Son, Jesus, did not retreat
before the cross, but "endured the cross and disregarded the shamefulness
of it" (Heb 12: 2). The hostility of his enemies could not distract him
from his firm intent to fulfil your will and proclaim the Reign, cost what it
may. Strengthen us, Father, with the gift of your Spirit. May he enable us to
follow Jesus resolutely and faithfully. May he make us his imitators in deed
and make your Reign the centre of our lives. May he give us strength to bear
adversity and difficulties so that true life may blossom in us and in all
humankind. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen
