Homily for 22d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
22d Sunday of Ordinary Time

August 30, 2026
Matt 16: 20-27
Rom 12: 1-2
Infant Jesus, Harvey, La.
MHC, Harvey, La.

"Get behind me" (James Tissot)

“You’re thinking not as God does but as human beings do” (Matt 16: 23).

Moments earlier, Peter had recognized that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16).  Jesus directed his apostles to keep that to themselves, “to tell no one that he was the Christ” (16:20).

That secrecy seems to be because people, including the apostles, have no grasp of what it means for Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah, God’s anointed agent of human salvation.  When he tries to tell them that he must suffer, die, and be raised, it’s more than they want to hear or can begin to understand.

Even Peter, to whom God the Father had revealed Jesus’ identity, objects vigorously:  “God forbid, Lord!  That can’t possibly happen!” (16:22).  If you’ve watched The Chosen (which I highly recommend), you’ve seen repeatedly how slow the apostles are to understand what Jesus is teaching and prophesying; that portrayal is consistent with the written gospels.

Jesus reacts so strongly to Peter’s objection that he calls him “Satan,” an obstacle to what God wants, a demonic temptation that Jesus must thrust behind him:  Get out of my way.  Don’t stand there and block the road I must walk.

Another way of looking at what Jesus tells Peter—“Get behind me”—is “Remember that you are following me.  I’ve just appointed you the rock, the foundation stone of my Church, but I’m the leader.  Get in line behind me.”

Which is a point we all need to remember.  Whether Jesus is chastising Peter for throwing a temptation in his face or “only” telling him to get back in line, he’s challenging us to put aside how we tend to think as men and women and, as St. Paul urged the Christians of Philippi, to put on the mind of Christ, his way of thinking (Phil 2:5):  the way of humility and obedience, and as Jesus says very plainly here, the way of the cross.  “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matt 16:24).  The only road to the resurrection and heavenly glory is the one that Jesus walked ahead of us, the road to Calvary.

“Thinking as God does” doesn’t mean running to Calvary, wanting to suffer.  It means that when we act and speak as God wants us to, we will suffer.  Doing the right thing, saying the right thing, often comes with a price—as it did for Jesus, as it does for today’s martyrs who won’t deny Christ in the face of persecution, as it does for people who defend the human dignity of the unborn, of the foreign-born, of refugees, of the aged, of the homeless; for people who won’t cheat in school or in business; for people who keep their word when it would be easier to back out or back down or lie; for people who try to serve the common good rather than enrich or empower themselves; for people who deny themselves and their greed and their lust in order to honor, respect, and help others.

There are also sufferings that we don’t have any choice about:  illness and injury, natural disasters, ruined plans, the loss of loved ones.  These, too, are part of the cross that Jesus tells us we must carry in his footsteps.  They work for our holiness when we use them to unite ourselves to him and his passion.  This is the “spiritual worship” St. Paul speaks of in the 2d reading:  “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Rom 12:1).  Offer to God not a lamb or a bull or incense, as the ancient Jews and Romans did, but your own selves:  your joy and your sorrow, your hurts of body and heart.  Whoever follows Jesus like this will save his life—both body and soul for eternity at Jesus’ side (Matt 16:25).