Recently AT &
T ran a series of commercials with Kindergarten children which were
very cute. They asked the children questions and just let them
respond naturally. In one of the commercials the children were
asked, ‘Is it better to get what you want now instead of later?’
One little girl said, ‘You don’t want to wait to eat your
raisins.’ When asked why not, she replied, ‘Because they’ll
turn into grapes!’ The company was advertising the fact that with
them you can get what you want straight away and you won’t have
to wait. Nothing strange about that, in fact it is what we are
continually told through commercials. We should be able to have
whatever we want right away, we shouldn’t have to make sacrifices
for anything, or at least the absolute minimum. Then we have
today’s readings which take a very different view.
Did you ever think that
Jesus would have called the first Pope, St. Peter, ‘Satan’? It
seems a bit extreme, doesn’t it? In the context that Jesus
used it, it doesn’t actually mean ‘the devil’, rather ‘enemy’.
But why was he calling St. Peter an enemy, when he was entrusting his
Church to him? Jesus was teaching the disciples that they must
learn to think in a different way. The way of Christ and
the way of the world are different, radically different. If we
want to walk the path of Christianity and follow the way of Jesus, then it will cost us. Make no mistake about it, it will
cost us.
One of the
difficulties we face is that we are continually told that we should
and can have everything that we want. ‘If you want something,
get it. And if you can’t get it, remove whatever is
preventing you from getting it.’ ‘Have everything your
way.’ That’s the teaching of the world. And people
listen to the world and that’s why there is so much corruption
around us, because too many people are thinking of themselves only.
God gives us
a choice when it comes to being Christian, and the choice is this: do
you want to follow the way of Jesus Christ, or your own way?
The way of Christ is quite demanding and Jesus made it very
clear that it was and that it will cost us. ‘If anyone wants to be
a follower of mine, let him renounce himself take up his cross and
follow me.’ Ironically many people leave the Catholic Church
to follow more demanding forms of religion because they feel that our
faith is too easy. That’s why many young people follow
eastern religions. They haven’t fully understood what our
faith is about.
When Jesus referred to his future suffering, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Heaven preserve you Lord, this
must not happen to you.’ Things had been going very nicely up
to this point. Jesus was working miracles and becoming very
popular and more and more people were following him. So the
Apostles held privileged positions as well. But now if Jesus
was going to be tortured and put to death, that would ruin all that. ‘Lord you mustn’t let this happen, we like it the way things are, we
don’t want pain and suffering and to be unpopular.’ But Jesus
says to him, ‘The way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’
It is the way of the world that we shouldn’t have to suffer or make
sacrifices.
You could say
that we have become spoiled Christians. What do I mean? We
tend to do the things that we like and when it suits us. We are
happy to shop on Sundays because it suits us, even though it is
directly breaking one of God’s commandments to us. Many
people don’t bother fasting for an hour before they receive Holy
Communion, because it’s too much trouble. We use the name of
Jesus as a swear word, even though this is breaking one of God’s
commandments as well. And then people say that they haven’t
sinned, even though this is why Jesus died, because we do sin.
But people say to me all the time, ‘Oh no, I haven’t any sins.’
Let me assure you as I say this, that I am as guilty as anyone else.
If we were to
follow the more popular version of Christianity, then priests would
be married, there would be women priests, we wouldn’t have to fast,
we could teach divorce and contraception as the obvious solution to
difficult problems, because these things suit us. But that’s
not what our faith is about. Being a Catholic involves a
certain way of life. It involves making sacrifices and doing things that don’t always
suit us. Going to mass on Sundays when we would rather be
asleep or having coffee; confessing to God regularly that we have
sinned. Following his teaching as passed on by the Church and
not just the bits that suit us.
Perhaps what is most
important to mention is that although it is a difficult path it is
also the path that leads to life. That’s why Jesus didn’t
give in to Peter and say, ‘You know, you’re right, your way is
much better’. God knows what it is that will lead us to life
and that’s why He encourages us to persevere in the way that He
asks us to follow rather than compromise.
I think it’s
no harm to remind ourselves every so often, that the path to heaven
is meant to involve sacrifice. This life is the time when we
are asked to put up with difficulties and make sacrifices. Only
in the next world will we be totally fulfilled.
Sometimes
people ask me why I became a priest. I always think that the
first reading sums it up very well, where Jeremiah says, ‘You have
seduced me Lord and I have let myself be seduced.’ And then he goes
on to say, ‘I tried not to speak in God’s name, but it was as if
there was a great fire welling up within me and I could not resist
it.’ The desire to be married has always been there for me, but the
call to priesthood was stronger. It involves a lot of
sacrifice, but I think married life involves even more sacrifice.
It is not something we should be afraid of, it is simply part of our
path to heaven.
Let me finish with the words of St. Paul from the second reading which sum
up what I’m trying to say:
‘Do not
model yourselves on the world around you, but let your behaviour
change, modeled by your new mind. This is the only way to
discover the will of God…’
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