“Death That Leads To Life” - 22nd Sunday OT (A) – 9.3.23

“Death That Leads To Life”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

St. Mark the Evangelist Parish - Butler/Cranberry, PA

Mass Readings - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090323.cfm

In the Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples what it will cost to follow Him. He tells them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

This is not an easy message to hear. Following Jesus is difficult.

Jesus then tells the disciples, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” As human beings we don’t enjoy suffering, so we believe the lie that we don’t have to suffer and die in living out our faith. We hear of suffering and death, and we think we must run from it. This is what Peter thought. Peter rebuked Jesus for saying that He will have to suffer and die. Jesus then tells Peter, “"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

This seems like a harsh response from our Lord, but it shows the importance that suffering and death play in our Christian journey, and how easy it is to deceive ourselves into thinking that suffering and death need to be avoided. Peter wanted Jesus to avoid dying, but Peter didn’t understand the necessity of Christ’s death which would lead to everlasting life through His Death and Resurrection.

We need to stop thinking like human beings do and think as God does. When we think as God does, we see that death leads to life.

Many people, instead of embracing the death that leads to eternal life in our Christian journey, they try to “save” their lives, by pursuing the riches and pleasures of this world, so as to escape suffering and live a life of pleasure. They may gain everything in this life but are left with nothing in the end. These people live a life rejecting God, and they end up losing their soul, and suffering eternal death. Jesus says, “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?”

Again, if we follow the way of Christ, and suffer and die in the ways that He is calling us to each day, we may lose everything in this life, including our own physical lives, but we will save our lives by gaining eternal life because we would have shared in the death of Christ which enables us to share in His Resurrection.

A good example for us today on the difficulties that can emerged in being a disciple of Christ is the prophet Jeremiah from the first reading. The Lord called Jeremiah to be a prophet, and prophecy to the Jewish people about their sins and the coming destruction if they don’t turn from their ways. Jeremiah was greatly rejected and persecuted for it, and they imprisoned him and even tried to kill him.

We hear in the first reading, Jeremiah venting his frustrations. He says, “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.”

Have you ever felt like this in your Christian journey? We do everything that the Lord asks us to do, but we are met with constant suffering and disappointment. It feels like we got tricked. We say, “Lord, I thought following you would be better, but all I’ve experienced are difficulties.”

Jeremiah reaches the point of frustration with God where he says, “I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more.” He is ready to give up. He has reached his limit. He doesn’t want to prophecy anymore. He wants to stop doing what he has been called to do.

However, what does he say next? He says, “But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.”

He is ready to give up, but the fire of God’s love that burns within his heart won’t let him. He is frustrated, but the message of God’s love and salvation must be proclaimed.

We see this in the responsory Psalm as well. The response said, “My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.” Psalm 63 is a Psalm of deep yearning and longing for God. When we give our lives to Christ, and grow in our relationship with Him, the fires of His love penetrate our heart, and we begin to yearn and long for our Lord.

It is the fire of God’s love within us that keeps our souls burning with deep longing for our God, and it is this fire that the Lord places within us that keeps us moving forward especially in those times where we have reached our absolute limit and are ready to give up.

I imagine we have all reached our limit at some point in our lives. We may be experiencing great suffering, pain, and frustration in our Christian journey and have reached the limit of what we can handle.

However, just as we are ready to quit, we find ourselves continuing to move forward. We don’t know what it is, but our legs keep moving, we have the cross on our shoulders, and we just keep moving forward. There is something within us that won’t let us stop even if we wanted. This something is the fire of God’s love within us. The yearning and longing for our God, that keeps us moving even when we have nothing left to give.

I think of Frodo from Lord of the Rings when he is in Mordor, and he is exhausted and thirsty and hungry and ready to give up as the cross of being the ring bearer has become too heavy for him, but he continues to go forward. Step by step. Inch by inch. He inches closer to fulfilling the mission he was called to complete. He eventually reaches the end, the ring is destroyed, and the mission is complete.

Again, Christianity is not easy. It costs us everything. There will be many sufferings and deaths that we have to endure throughout our lives. But Christ promises us that He will be with us in our journey. He will help us carry our crosses, and lighten our burden. He give us His peace, joy, happiness, love, and consolation even amidst the difficulties of our Christian journey.

Every suffering and death that we have to endure as Christians is worth it. We may lose everything in this life, but we will gain everything in the next.

So let us have courage, and deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Let us be the disciples that He is calling us to be. Let us go and suffer and die with our Lord, so that we too may rise with Him and gain eternal life.