The Sánchez Archives TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME Year A

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Not Mine, But Yours Be Done

JEREMIAH 20:7-9
ROMANS 12:1-2
MATTHEW 16:21-27

God’s ways are not our ways. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. God’s mind is not our mind. God’s will is not our will. But all of human life, if it is lived in authenticity and faith, is spent in attending to the ways and thoughts and mind and will of God so as to accept these as our own and live accordingly. Each of the readings for today’s liturgy is concerned with the struggle of knowing and living in concert with God’s will even when and especially if such knowledge and the life-style which issues from it entails suffering.

Jeremiah’s (first reading) surrender to the ways and will of God for him set him in opposition to his contemporaries and resulted in conflict and persecutions which led them to cry out in anguish. Yet, he remained an undaunted prophet who boldly confronted God with the hardships he was made to endure for the sake of his ministry.

Paul, in his letters to the Corinthians of Rome (second reading) acknowledged the fact that commitment to God’s will often requires an attitude of non-conformity to one’s contemporary culture. The words of the great apostle remind believers everywhere, that life, lived in accord with Christ and the good news, can become a sacred liturgy in which God is praised and the community is enriched. . .

In today’s gospel (Matthew), Peter’s difficulty in accepting the ways and will of God is evidenced in his reaction to Jesus. Surely, Peter thought, suffering and death were not to be predicated with the Messiah! Jesus’ rebuke of Peter challenged him and all would-be-disciples to accept in faith, even that which they had not expected and for which they had no desire. Jesus issued a further challenge that those who willed to follow him, would be asked to bear a similar burden on their way to glory.

Because the struggle to know and live in acquiescence to the will of God is an inherent aspect of spiritual growth and development, it may be helpful to have some wise counsel to guide the process of discernment. In this regard, I am reminded of the discussion between a young theologian and an uneducated tailor who was exceptionally well acquainted with the scriptures. Proud of his years of formal education and the degrees he had earned, the theologian was intent upon showing his superior knowledge: “Can you tell me what the Urim and Thummim were?” The tailor, replied, “I don’t know exactly but I believe the words mean ‘lights’ and ‘perfection’ and the term described a device used by the high priest to determine the will of God. Amazed at this erudite response, the theologian’s pride shrank considerably when the tailor went on to say, “But I find I can learn the will of God by just changing two letters of the Urim and Thummim. Each day I take up my Bible and by usin’ and thummmin’.” I become familiar with God’s mind and ways and will for me. Those who would become similarly familiar with the word of God will find it full of riches.

For example, in the scriptures, the author of Ephesians reminds believers that God, in all wisdom has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of times (Ephesians 1:9). Believers are assured that it is God’s will that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). Although mere human understanding cannot grasp God’s will (Wisdom 9:13), God grants the gift of wisdom and discernment to those who pray for it (Wisdom 9:12). In prayer, the believer comes to grips with the eternal plan and thoughts of God’s heart (Ps. 33:11) and perceives the radical difference and transcendence of God’s will as compared with human will (Proverbs 19:21). Nevertheless, through prayer, the will of God can be known and in prayer are given the grace and endurance to accomplish that will (Roman 12:2, Ephesians 5:17, Hebrews 10:36).

When the will of the believer collides with the will of God (as was the experience of Jeremiah and Peter), those who would be formed in the ways of God would do well to remember the example set by Jesus. Anguishing amid the tension between doing the will of God and his own volition, Jesus openly confronted the struggle, laid bare his thoughts and emotions, and in prayer was able to surrender: “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:47). As Xavier Leon Dufour (Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Geoffrey Chapman, London: 1973) has noted, “Jesus’ adherence to the divine will did not suppress his pain or dissolve the conflict but rather, made it intelligible and acceptable. From that moment, even when he may have felt alone or abandoned, Jesus knew himself to be the loved one of God (Matthew 27:43 = Ps 22:9).”

To pray, as Jesus did, “not my will, but yours. . .” requires a daily and Herculean effort. In the struggles of Jeremiah, Peter and Jesus, in the support of the praying community, in the presence of the Spirit and by “usin and thummin” the pages of our saving story, believers will find the grace and strength needed for a continued and constant commitment to God’s will.

JEREMIAH 20:7-9

In one of its more obscure derivations, the name Jeremiah can be rendered as Yahweh shoots, or better, Yahweh hurls. True to his name, Jeremiah was hurled by God into the most convulsive period of Judah’s history. During his ministry, which lasted approximately forty years, the prophet was instrumental in Josiah’s religious and political reform of Judah (ca. 621-609 B.C.E.). Soon, however, the reform was overshadowed by a return to idolatry and infidelity to the covenant.

Present at Babylonia’s first invasion into Judah (597 B.C.E.), Jeremiah lived to see the utter destruction of Jerusalem, the temple and the monarchy (587 B.C.E.). All the while, his many interventions on behalf of his people, warned them of the consequences of their actions and implored them to reinstate their covenantal relationship with God. Mistreated and rejected by his contemporaries, Jeremiah was nevertheless unrelenting in his efforts to keep them in touch with God’s truth. Because of his frank assessment of that crucial time in salvation history, it has been said that Jeremiah heard and gave voice to the last sigh’s of a dying Judah.

Something of what compelled Jeremiah to persevere in his ministry is revealed in a collection of texts which have been called his “confessions” (11:18-12:6; 15:10-21; 17:12-18; 18:18-23, 20:7-18). Through these prayerful reflections on his life and work, Jeremiah described what may be called his love affair with God, with the word of God and with God’s will as revealed in the word.

His commitment to God and his knowledge of God’s will began with what Jeremiah described as: “the word of the Lord came to me” (Jeremiah 1:4). Theologian Emil Brunner referred to Jeremiah’s experience of God as a divine-human encounter. “In his word. God does not deliver a course of lectures in dogmatic theology. He does not submit to me or interpret for me the content of a confession of faith, but He makes himself accessible to me. . . it is an encounter, the meeting of person with person.” (The Divine Human Encounter, Westminster Press, Philadelphia: 1943). This was Moses’ experience at the burning bush (Exodus 3), and Isaiah’s in the holy of holies in the temple (Isaiah 6). Rudolf Otto called this encounter a mysterium tremedum et fascinans (Idea of the Holy, Oxford University Press, New York: 1968); while Martin Buber spoke in terms of an I-thou engagement.

Suffice it to say, Jeremiah’s initial encounter with God was compelling and life-changing. For the prophet, the experience of God is not an end in itself as it is with the mystic. Rather, the prophet’s divine-human encounter must, of its very nature, erupt into action. Jeremiah could not help but speak the word of God; the self-described “fire burning in his heart and in his bones” hurled him into the fray. Jeremiah had to speak, to cry out, regardless of the consequences.

The personal and intimate quality of the prophet’s relationship with God is borne out in the admittedly sexual overtones of his vocabulary in this reading. The Hebrew words patâ (you duped me), and hagaq (you were too strong for me) in verse seven, are more precisely rendered in the New Jerusalem Bible translation which reads, “You have seduced me, Yahweh, and I have let myself be seduced; you have overpowered me: you were the stronger!” Both terms (pata, hagaq) are applied elsewhere in the Hebrew scriptures to the seduction of a virgin (Exodus 22:15, Deuteronomy 22:25, 2 Samuel 13:11, 14, Proverbs 7:13). Jeremiah was driven not by ambition but by love; he experienced God’s love as overwhelming and consuming and responded in kind. It was this love that enabled him to grapple with and accept the will of God in those happy days when that will challenged him “to build and to plant” as well as in those dark nights when he was called “to root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish” (Jeremiah 1:10).

Although many of us will not be called to bear the burden of God’s word as dramatically as did Jeremiah, each of us is compelled to listen and heed the Jeremiahs, through whom God reveals his ways and will to us.

ROMANS 12:1-2

In his personal manifesto of his faith, Hans Küng (Why I Am Still A Christian, Abingdon Press, Nashville: 1987) affirmed that being a Christian must profoundly influence a person’s approach to the problems of war and injustice, violence and the struggle for power as well as the pressure for increased consumerism. Being a Christian must make itself felt in education; it must show itself in service for others. Being a Christian does not call merely for adoration without practical commitment, nor simply for us to say, “Lord, Lord”, or “Son of God, Son of God!” But neither does Christ call us to literal imitation. Christ “calls for personal discipleship, not in imitation but in correlation, in correspondence. That means I commit myself to him and pursue my life in accord with his direction.” When Paul began the paranetic (exhortation intended to elicit a moral response) section of his letter to the Romans, he, like Küng, implored his readers to allow their Christian values and commitment to spill over and permeate every aspect of their lives.

This author supports the assertions of Reginald Fuller (Preaching the New Lectionary, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 1976) who believes it a pity that the compilers of the Lectionary omitted a tiny but crucial word from this chosen excerpt. Paul began this appeal with the Greek word oun or therefore, a crucial omission because Romans 12-15 represent Christian living as a “therefore ethics” or a moral response to what God has done for humanity in Christ. In the first eight chapters of Romans, Paul set forth the saving acts of God. In chapters 9-11, he digressed to lament the fact that his Jewish brothers and sisters had not yet accepted Jesus as their Messiah. With the “therefore” of Romans 12:1, the apostle launched into the responsibilities of Christians as regards God’s gracious gifts.

When the disciple’s life is lived in correspondence with God’s will, as revealed in Christ and the good news, then that life becomes prayer in action or as Paul says, “a living sacrifice” (vs. 1). Paul knew that his words would remind his readers of the animal sacrifices offered in Jewish and pagan rituals. Therefore he qualified the sacrifice, offered by Christians, as “living”. As Joseph Fitzmyer has noted, “Christian life is not a cult that offers to God dead animals, but Christians who strive to do what is right give a cultic or sacrificial meaning to the very lives that they lead” (Spiritual Exercises Based On Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Paulist Press, New York: 1995).

Paul went on to describe the living sacrifice of a committed Christian life as “spiritual worship” (vs. 1) The Greek term latreuein or worship originally meant to work for pay, or to hire oneself voluntarily out to another. As the term evolved, latreuein came to mean “to serve” and/or to dedicate one’s life. Eventually, it was a term associated solely with the service of the gods. When Paul adapted the term, latreuein for Christian usage, it referred to worship offered to God by virtue of a life lived in consecrated service. Not restricted to the church, this quality of spiritual worship praises God in the workplace, the school, the shopping mall and even on public transportation.

In order to be authentic, however, the Christian’s living sacrifice and spiritual worship must be synchronized with the will of God (vs. 2), unconformed to the transient and vapid values of the world, and attuned to Christ. The daily process of “synchronization” and “tuning” can be accomplished only by a transformation and renewal of the mind (vs. 2). Transformed, or metamorphousthai, means change in one’s morphe or essential personality and attitude. Elsewhere, Paul described this process of conversion as “putting on the mind of Christ” (Philippians 2:5; 1 Corinthians 2:16). Only when believers know and live according to the mind of Christ will they truly discern the divine will and thereby live in a manner which offers true worship to God.

MATTHEW 16:21-27

At this point in the Matthean account of the good news, readers will detect an obvious change of gears. Whereas the first part of the gospel was building toward Peter’s climactic declaration of Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16), the latter part of the gospel will be concerned with the true significance of that statement for Jesus and for those who would be his disciples. The Matthean evangelist’s literary signal “from then on” (vs. 21), alerted his readers that they had reached the theological turning point of his gospel.

By Jesus’ own assertion, Peter’s declaration was due, not to human insight or logic (“flesh and blood has not revealed this to you”, vs. 17) but to a revelation of the Father. The clash between Peter and Jesus which is at the heart of today’s gospel underscored the fact that Peter had not yet fully discerned and accepted the will of God or its implications as regards Jesus’ messiahship. It was Peter’s will and expectation that the messiah should be a powerful king, whose leadership would reestablish the freedom and sovereignty of Israel. No doubt, Jesus’ indication, that his tenure as messiah would be characterized by suffering and would end in death, was a violent affront to Peter’s will.

Peter’s struggle is evidenced in his loving remonstration with Jesus. Unfortunately, Peter, the rock, upon which others should have been able to find support for their faith, had become Peter, the stumbling stone. In answer to Peter’s “God forbid. . .”, Jesus made it clear that his path to glory via suffering and death on the cross was, indeed, God’s will! Readers will notice that the rebuke of Peter, “Get out of my sight, you satan!” (vs 23) is remarkably similar to Jesus’ dismissal of his tempter in the desert, “Get away, Satan!” (Matthew 4:11). In both instances, an attempt was made to deter Jesus from carrying out the will and saving plan of God. In each instance, there was a blatant attempt to distort Jesus’ messianic ministry. But both attempts were routed by Jesus’ unflinching dedication to the will of the Father.

Challenging his disciples to think and to judge not by human standards but by God’s (vs. 23), Jesus also made it clear that anyone who wished to be a disciple must be similarly surrendered to God’s will. Such surrender would entail self-denial, acceptance of the cross and a careful following in Jesus’ footsteps (vs. 24). As Wilfrid Harrington has pointed out, the thrust of this gospel centered less on Jesus’ prediction of the suffering to come and more on the fact that the cross is the only sure path to glory. “The cross is actual and symbolic: actual because it stood on Calvary, symbolic because it represents the sufferings, persecutions, martyrdoms, indifference, moral struggles, and lovelessness which every follower of Christ is bound to meet” (The Saving Word, Michael Glazier, Inc., Wilmington: 1980).

The tag lines in verses 25-26 were probably independent sayings which were variously appropriated by the evangelists. In the context of this gospel, the sayings affirm the seeming contradiction of discipleship. . . losers are really winners. . . those who have gained the world have really forfeited their lives. In the midst of this contradiction lies the mystery of God’s will, his ways, his wisdom and the ever present call to surrender: not mine, but yours be done.

[NOTE TO USERS: This archive is available for use without charge, but it remains the property of the author and under copyright with Celebrations Publications. Users are permitted to print individual Sunday commentaries for pastoral use, but are prohibited from downloading or copying files or printing any portion of this for sale or distribution.]