Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. Like the earth parched, lifeless, and without water. Your kindness is a greater good than life. As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied.

Jeremiah's fire in his bones and the psalm's thirst belong together: the word of God is both what burns and what satisfies. He grew weary holding it in. When he released it, it cost him everything — but he could not endure the holding.

At the evening of a long life, the question Peter's failure raises is familiar. The right answer given and then the cross negotiated around. Not from malice — from the human logic that says this is not how it should go, this cannot be what God intends, there must be a better path than the one that goes through suffering. That logic has been available in every decade.

Paul names what the transformation looks like: offer your body as a living sacrifice. Do not conform to this age. Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. The living sacrifice is not dramatic — it is the daily ongoing offering of a life. The cross Jesus names is not always spectacular. It is the ordinary daily loss of the life being saved by other means.

Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The evening of a long life has usually tested this. The life offered has been found. The life saved from the cross is what was lost.