Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa on the XXII Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Below you can find the Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for the XXII Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, Sunday 3 September 2023.
Mt 16:21-27
Today's Word is a harsh word to behold.
During the past few Sundays, we got used to hearing words of consolation, confirmation, and encouragement. We would expect God to always speak in this way, with words that pave the way.
In today's Gospel (Mt 16:21-27), which is a continuation of last Sunday's Gospel passage, new and different words resound, words that are not easy to accept, such as suffering and death. Also, Jesus rebukes Peter for being an obstacle to him and expresses that one must be willing to deny thyself and lose one's life.
The Word of the Lord also has a bitter taste at times.
The first to struggle to accept this Word is Peter himself: Last Sunday, we saw him listening to the Father (Mt 16:17), who whispered true words into his heart when Jesus examined the disciples about His identity.
Yet today, Peter listens to that very flesh and blood of which Jesus had spoken to him last Sunday – “Blessed are you, Simon’s son of Jonah. For flesh and blood* has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father” – (Mt 16:17): Flesh and blood that does not know the logic of love and giving, that rejects it.
The logic of love is not something that man knows spontaneously. It is not something that comes to us easily and automatically: It is a logic that must be learned humbly, day after day. We go to Jesus to learn this logic, for it is not possible to follow Him and remain within the mental schemes that drive us to prefer success, power, and self-affirmation. These are two conflicting realities.
But how to learn this logic?
We could say that the whole journey of the past Sundays, in which both the themes of the Word and listening, returned as central. As if it was meant to lead us right here, to the Word of this Sunday: The Word of the Lord digs deep into the heart of Man to birth the capacity to lose one's life. For only those who listen, open themselves to a different way of living, can welcome a different logic, which is, first and foremost, a new way of knowing God.
In Peter's thinking, it is impossible for a God to accept suffering, weakness, and who welcomes failure. In Peter's thinking, God can only be a strong and victorious God.
According to Jesus, this does not correspond to God’s will, and he goes so far as to call Peter Satan. Who is Satan? He is an obstacle, a stumbling tumbling, which is a hinderance to the plan.
Then it becomes clear to us what it means to deny one's life, and to take up one's cross: perhaps it means nothing more than denying, saying no to a certain way of thinking about life; about following Christ, and about God’s character.
It is not a matter of denying what is beautiful and good in us, but rather what is improper in us, which prevents us from entering the logic of self-giving…
This Meditation was originally published on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Please click here to read the full text.