By: Kathryn Getek Soltis
Readings for Sunday, August 28, 2011
Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Jer 20:7-9; Ps 63: 2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9; Rom 12:1-2; Mt 16:21-27
The challenges posed by suffering can be addressed pastorally or they might be treated in a purely philosophical vein. Yet, the readings for this coming Sunday show that the question of suffering is always a moral challenge as well. In particular, suffering calls us to a complex moral discernment about our response to the reign of God.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, moral discernment appears as a way in which we worship God:
. . . offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. (Rom 12:1-2)To be a “living sacrifice†means to seek ways to constantly refer our lives to God. In the verses of Romans immediately following those of the Second Reading, we find the varied gifts given to the community (united as many parts of the Body of Christ) that enable our seeing, judging, and acting in the pursuit of truth and goodness. Whether prophecy, teaching, acts of mercy, or exhortation, the gifts within our community make it possible to engage in moral discernment as a service and offering to God.
That all sounds nice and tidy, but the Gospel provides a stark reminder of how very difficult it is to discern the path of our moral lives. After a self-esteem-building moment for Peter last Sunday (“you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church….I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven,†Mt 16:18-19a), this Sunday Peter is reminded of his weakness and limited moral perception. After Jesus explains that he will suffer and be killed, Peter exclaims: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you,†(Mt 16:22). While wanting to avoid another’s suffering seems altogether reasonable, Peter is “thinking not as God does, but as human beings do†(16:23).
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