September 3, 2017
To begin my reflection on the readings of today permit me to tell you a short story of what happened in Poland years ago, precisely in 1984 when Poland was still under Communist control. I just read the story in the internet and I found it a relevant anecdote to our Sunday readings. The Prime Minister then ordered the crosses removed from classroom walls. Catholic Bishops attacked the ban, which had stirred waves of anger and resentment all across Poland. Ultimately the government relented, insisting that the law remain on the books, but agreeing not to press for removal of the crucifixes, particularly in the schoolrooms. But one zealous Communist school administrator, the director of agricultural college Mietnow, took the crosses down from his seven lecture halls where they had hung since the school's founding in the twenties. Days later, a group of parents entered the school and hung more crosses. The administrator promptly had the crosses again taken down as well. The next day two-thirds of the school's six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived, the students were forced into the streets. Then they marched, the streets with crucifixes held high, to a nearby Church where they were joined by twenty-five hundred other students from nearby schools for a morning of prayer in support of the protest. Soldiers surrounded the Church. But the press was there as well, and pictures from inside of students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. So did the words of the priest who delivered the message to the weeping congregation that morning. "There is no Poland without a cross."(http://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/09/world/student-protest-swells-in-poland-return-of-crucifixes-is-demanded.html) I can as well say that there is no Christianity without the cross. The cross is more than a symbol we see hanging in our churches, decorating seasonal greeting cards or worn as jewelry. George Bennard in 1913 in his wonderful composition-„the old rugged cross“ called it „the emblem of suffering and shame”. On the cross he says, “The dearest and best was slain for a world of sinners.” George Bennard professes to cling firm to the old rugged cross and to exchange it for a crown at the end. For the first Christians the cross of Christ meant more, St. Paul called it a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles (1 cor. 1:23) No one in the real sense of it would wish himself the cross, suffering or shame. In today's first reading we hear the lamentations of Jeremiah in the face of his sufferings for proclaiming the word of God. Jeremiad in literary sense means an elaborate and prolonged lamentation or tale of woe. Today's passage in the first reading could be described as the purest of jeremiads- a tale of woes. In it, Jeremiah accuses Yahweh of tricking him but it offers us a powerful description of someone suffering for obedience to his conscience. Jeremiah was regarded as a traitor by his own people because, as God's mouthpiece, he had to foretell the dire results of disobedience to God’s commandments. He is certainly a prototype of the suffering Christ. In the gospel of today we heard the immediate reaction of Peter as Jesus mentioned the cross and suffering are necessary components of his messianic mission. I see Peter’s reaction as normal because no one would wish oneself suffering and shame, and no one would wish loved ones such. The quick rebuke of Jesus is very striking: “Get behind me Satan, you think like humans, not like God” bearing in mind the praise he received last in week’s reading after his profound confession of faith. Get behind we Satan sounds like the same rebuke to Satan in the wilderness but there is a difference between the two. Origen suggests that Jesus was saying to Peter: "Peter, your place is behind me, not in front of me. It's your job to follow me in the way I choose, not to try to lead me in the way YOU would like me to go." Satan is banished from the presence of Christ, and Peter is recalled to be Christ's follower. This takes us to look at the meaning of “followership” or call it discipleship or better a word “apprenticeship” which Robert Barron used in his book “The strangest way”. There are three conditions led down in the gospel of today for Christian discipleship: a) Deny yourself- This implies evicting selfish thoughts and desires out of our hearts. This is like walking in the path of Jesus. St. Paul presents this path in his Letter to the Philippians. In Chapter two Paul writes: “His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross” One important aspect of denying ourselves is to constantly remind ourselves that all we have comes from God. Our successes or the good and privileged positions we may occupy in the society should inspire gratitude to God and service to humanity not pride and arrogance. b) Take up your cross: There is no life without some challenges. We all experience sufferings in different ways. As Christians, our personal sufferings become our share in the cross of Jesus. St. Paul describes his own sufferings as marks of Jesus’ passion and death. We are encouraged to take up our cross: 1) when we suffer by serving others, like taking care of sick loved ones or partners etc. 2) when we give ourselves -- our health, wealth, time and talents – to others until it hurts us, etc. c) Follow me: Following Jesus means that, as Disciples of Christ, we should live our lives according to the word of God by obeying Jesus' commandment of love. In the second reading Paul advises the Roman Christians that they must live their Christian lives in such a way that they differ both from the Jews and from the pagans. St. Paul calls them to adopt an attitude of sacrifice in their worship of God. In order to do this, they must explicitly reject the behavior of the world around them and follow Jesus. Following Christ could be explained with the Latin expression: “Ubi dolor, Ubi Christus” (wherever there is suffering there is Christ) Jesus takes his place within the pains and sorrows of man. In the pastoral documents of Vatican II Gaudium et spes the church states that the “joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well” The question we need to ask ourselves is: much empathy do we show in situations of suffering and pain. Do we see Christ in the faces of suffering humanity or do we sit and Judge them- that serves them right? There is much suffering in the world today. We see it on the faces of those who are forced by war to leave their home lands to other places, subjected to the rigorous process of being accepted as refugees in foreign lands. We see suffering on the faces of people who are displaced due to natural disasters, be it in Texas, Sierra Leone, Mumbai etc. we see sufferings on the faces of those who lost loved ones to terrorist’ attacks which happen often these days. We are called to empathize with those who suffer. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus says “I was sick you visited me, naked you clothed me, hungry and you fed me etc” (cf. Matt.25:36-40). This is the key that opens the door to the kingdom of God.
Fr Sylvester Ajunwa