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Today in Our Church (II - I liked both homilies!)
22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

From the Liturgy of the Word

Gospel
Mt 16:21-27

Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
He turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

Then Jesus said to his disciples,
"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.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct."

"The Only Truly Safe Investment In The World"
Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.

Jer 20:7-9 / Roma 12:1-2 /Mt 16:21-27

Not so long ago, when computers were not half as smart as they are today, a group of experts developed a computer program to translate texts from one language to another. After extensive work, they were sure they had it right, so they typed in the very first text ever to be translated by a computer. It was a familiar text from scripture: "The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Without a moment's hesitation, the computer printed out the translation which read as follows: "The liquor's still good, but the meat's gone bad."
+++++++++++++++++
Life is a struggle, from beginning to end, and few things ever come easy. At the beginning of life we strain hard to stand upright without anybody holding onto us. At the end of life we're back to the very same task. And in between, the struggles are laid end to end: raising kids, making a marriage, finding our life's work, taking care of those who need us, becoming faithful friends, finding the money to do what needs to be done.

A lot of struggling is done right out there in plain view. But the real struggle is always inside us: the struggle with fear which is always there whispering in our ear, "Don't get in too deep; you might lose or get hurt. Save your strength for later."

At every fork in the road, fear tells us not to invest: in this moment, or in this person, or in whatever is at hand because there's no guarantee we'll win, no guarantee that our kids will be good, that our spouse will be faithful, or that our good work will bear fruit. "No guarantee," says that evil little voice inside, "so, stand pat; sit on your hands. Better safe than sorry."

Jesus responds to that lying little voice with a warning in Sunday's Gospel: "Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

God has given every one of us some very clear life assignments. They're spelled out in our gifts and in the circumstances of our lives. Will we accept God's assignments and do the important work he's given us? Will we succeed in building our piece of his kingdom? Only if we invest everything we've got — for the long term. But by ourselves that's impossible, because our fears are just too great.

However, we do have an alternative, and that is to look straight into our Lord's eyes — there on the cross — and ask ourselves if he can be trusted. The answer is so obvious. The cross says it all. So, trust him! Invest your whole heart in every moment. And remember that, in the end, the only absolutely safe and sure investment in all the world is working as his full time partner. You can count on it!

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