Reflection for Sunday August 30, Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Matthew 16:21-27

Gospel: Matthew 16:21-27

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.”

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Reflection:

Are you aware of the prosperity theology or gospel? The center of this teaching is this: You follow and serve Jesus and you will prosper materially. You give to your church without measure because you will receive what you gave a hundredfold.

The proponent of this idea focuses on God as a giver of wealth and prosperity. Many Christian groups are using this teaching to attract more followers and they are successful with this; who wouldn’t want prosperity and a blissful life?

But is this always true? That once we choose to follow Jesus and generously give to the church we will have a prosperous and blissful life?

Jesus in the gospel said to the disciples: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  In effect Jesus is contradicting this teaching of prosperity theology. Many of us have this mistaken notion that the moment we choose to follow the Lord  life would be OK already for us.  This is not always true, often times the more that we faithfully follow Jesus the more that we are persecuted. And the more that we create enemies for ourselves there are even those who were martyred for their faithful discipleship.

Would this discourage us already? The person with a faint heart would be easily discouraged by this paradox of true discipleship. But if we really desire to faithfully follow the Lord we must be prepared for persecution, for hardship and we must even be prepared to die for the sake of our true discipleship.

Full blooded followers will never be afraid with whatever sufferings and crosses that may come their way. Because they know that in the middle of their hardships and persecutions Jesus will always be there for them to strengthen and guide them in every step of their way.

So why be afraid of sufferings, of persecution or even death? Life is temporary anyway and aside from that we don’t own our life, God owns it. If we suffer because of our faithful adherence to Jesus then we expect a reward someday.

It may not come our way during our lifetime in this world but there will eventually be a reward when we have already crossed the line that divides this present life and the everlasting life. – Marino J. Dasmarinas