Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." - Matthew 16:24-25

Peter had the right answer last Sunday and the wrong response this Sunday. He confessed Christ correctly and then tried to protect him from what Christ came to do. Get behind me, Satan. The obstacle is not Peter's malice — it is his human logic. Saving Jesus from the cross made perfect sense. That logic is available to every man who follows Christ: I will follow everywhere except there. I will take up any cross except that one. I will deny myself everything except the thing I most want to keep.

Jeremiah tried to hold the word in. It burned. He grew weary. He could not endure it. The man who tries to save the life he is supposed to offer as a living sacrifice eventually finds the same fire.

Brother, the iron offering today goes for [name]. And today's question from the hinge of Matthew's Gospel is direct: what is the cross you are still negotiating Jesus out of? Not the one that has already been taken up — the one you keep putting Peter's words around. God forbid. No such thing. Name it to another man, specifically. The man who keeps the unlifted cross private is more likely to keep finding reasons it cannot be now.

Name the specific cross you are still negotiating around — the cross-shaped thing attached to the confession you have already made. Name it to another man this week. Then name one concrete act by which you begin to take it up. Do not wait until it feels possible. Peter was wrong about what was possible.

Lord, let the word burn in me until I cannot hold it in. Give me what is needed to take up the cross I have been negotiating around. I am thinking as men do — give me the mind that thinks as God does. Seven Sorrows of Mary, pray for us. Amen.