Papal Homilies
Taking Up the Cross
30 August 2020 | Saint Peter’s Square
22nd Sunday of Year A
“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (v. 24).
In this way he indicates the way of the true disciple, showing two attitudes. The first is “to renounce oneself”, which does not mean a superficial change, but a conversion, a reversal of mentality and of values. The other attitude is that of taking up one’s own cross. It is not just a matter of patiently enduring daily tribulations, but of bearing with faith and responsibility that part of toil, and that part of suffering that the struggle against evil entails. The life of Christians is always a struggle. The Bible says that the life of Christians is a military undertaking: fighting against the evil spirit, fighting against Evil.
Thus the task of “taking up the cross” becomes participating with Christ in the salvation of the world. Considering this, let us make sure that the cross hanging on the wall at home, or that little one that we wear around our neck, is a sign of our wish to be united with Christ in lovingly serving our brothers and sisters, especially the littlest and most fragile. The cross is the holy sign of God’s Love, it is a sign of Jesus’ Sacrifice, and is not to be reduced to a superstitious object or an ornamental necklace. Each time we fix our gaze on the image of Christ crucified, let us contemplate that he, as the true Servant of the Lord, has accomplished his mission, giving life, spilling his blood for the pardoning of sins. And let us not allow ourselves to be drawn to the other side by the temptation of the Evil One. Therefore, if we want to be his disciples, we are called to imitate him, expending our life unreservedly out of love of God and neighbour.
In the Eucharistic Celebration We Relive the Mystery of the Cross
3 September 2017 | Saint Peter’s Square
22nd Sunday of Year A
Jesus completes his proposal with words that express a great and ever valid wisdom, because they challenge the egocentric mentality and behaviour. He exhorts: “whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (v. 25). This paradox contains the golden rule that God inscribed in the human nature created in Christ: the rule that only love gives meaning and happiness to life. To spend one’s own talents, one’s energy and one’s time only to save, protect and fulfil oneself, in reality leads to losing oneself, i.e. to a sad and barren existence. Instead let us live for the Lord and base our life on love, as Jesus did: we will be able to savour authentic joy, and our life will not be barren; it will be fruitful.
In the Eucharistic celebration we relive the mystery of the Cross; we not only remember, but we commemorate the redeeming Sacrifice in which the Son of God completely loses Himself so as to be received anew by the Father and thus find us again, we who were lost, together with all creatures. Each time we take part in the Holy Mass, the love of the crucified and Risen Christ is conveyed to us as food and drink, so that we may follow Him on the daily path, in concrete service to our brothers and sisters.
SOURCE: The Holy See Archive at the Vatican Website © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Pope Benedict XVI
The divergence between the Father’s loving plan and the disciples’ expectations
28 August 2011 | Courtyard of the Papal Summer Residence, Castel Gandolfo
22nd Sunday of Year A
In today’s Gospel Jesus explains to his disciples that he must “go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Mt 16:21).
Everything seems to have been turned upside down in the disciples’ hearts! How could “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16) suffer unto death? The Apostle Peter rebels, he refuses to accept this route, he rebukes the Teacher saying: “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (v. 22). The divergence between the Father’s loving plan — which even went as far as the gift of the Only-Begotten Son on the Cross to save humanity — and the disciples’ expectations, wishes and projects stands out clearly. And today too this contrast is repeated: when the fulfilment of one’s life is geared solely to social success and to physical and financial well-being, one no longer reasons according to God but according to men (v. 23).
Thinking as the world thinks is to set God aside, not accepting his plan of love, preventing him, as it were, from doing his wise will. For this reason Jesus says some particularly harsh words to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me” (ibid.). The Lord teaches that “the way of discipleship [is] the way to follow him [walk behind him], the Crucified. In all three Gospels he also interprets this ‘following’ on the way of the Cross” as “the indispensable way for man to ‘lose his life’, without which it is impossible for him to find” himself” (Jesus of Nazareth, English edition, New York, p. 287).
As he invited the disciples, Jesus also addresses an invitation to us: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). A Christian follows the Lord when he accepts lovingly his own cross, which in the world’s eyes seems a defeat and to “lose life” (cf. vv. 25-26), knowing that he is not carrying it alone but with Jesus, sharing his same journey of self-giving.
The Servant of God Paul VI wrote: “In a mysterious way, Christ himself accepts death… on the Cross, in order to eradicate from man’s heart the sins of self-sufficiency and to manifest to the Father a complete filial obedience” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete in Domino, 9 May 1975). By willingly accepting death, Jesus carries the cross of all human beings and becomes a source of salvation for the whole of humanity.
St Cyril of Jerusalem commented: “The glory of the Cross led those who were blind through ignorance into light, loosed all who were held fast by sin and brought redemption to the whole world of mankind” (Catechesis Illuminandorum XIII, 1: de Christo crucifixo et sepulto: PG 33, 772 B).
Dear friends, Let us entrust our prayers to the Virgin Mary and also to St Augustine whose Memorial we are celebrating today, so that each one of us may be able to follow the Lord on the way of the cross and let ourselves be transformed by divine grace, renewing — as St Paul says in the liturgy today — our minds so that we “may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2).
SOURCE: The Holy See Archive at the Vatican Website © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Pope St. John Paul II
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Holy See Homily Notes
Theme of Readings
The Will of God
The will of God is the supreme norm for the prophet Jeremiah, for Jesus Christ and for Christians. The cross and the sacrifice to be faithful to it are inseparable from God’s will. Jeremiah feels the stimulus of rebellion, the temptation to throw everything overboard; but “there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (first reading). Today’s Gospel follows Peter’s proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God (previous Sunday). Now, Jesus makes very clear what this means for him, as the Messiah, according God’s plan. “He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, on the third day be raised” (Gospel). Saint Paul teaches us that true worship consists in the offering of oneself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God (second reading).
P. Antonio Izqeuirdo, L.C., Copyright © Dicastery for the Clergy
Doctrinal Messages
The Will of God is history’s divine set of norms for the salvation of mankind
Being divine, this set of norms has a logic that differs from human logic, and may even appear to be contradictory and hostile to it. The prophet Jeremiah knows something about that. He was a peaceful man, but God called him to a vocation that was the opposite of his natural inclination: he would have to cry “ruin, destruction.” In spite of everything, the power of God’s will shakes him up inside and devours him, and is such that he cannot refuse. Jeremiah’s “passion” as he narrates it in his “confessions,” is the most faithful expression of his fidelity to God’s mysterious plan for human history.
P. Antonio Izqeuirdo, L.C., Copyright © Dicastery for the Clergy
In the Gospel’s account, Jesus announces for the first time the will of God for him in the future
“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things” (Gospel). Moved perhaps by his will to stand out and by his misunderstood love for Jesus, Peter wants to steer him away from the path of God’s will, a path of passion and the cross. Jesus knows the will of the Father and cannot allow anyone to interfere with his personal relationship with God. As a man, he has a very hard time in accepting God’s plan, so hard and painful. Yet, fidelity to his Father’s will is so important in his life that nothing or no-one can separate him from it. His passion is such that he does not hesitate to call Peter “Satan,” for in his eyes he is like a devil seeking to steer him away from God’s plan.
P. Antonio Izqeuirdo, L.C., Copyright © Dicastery for the Clergy
The need and the importance of knowing God’s will
Jeremiah and especially Jesus show us the need and the importance of knowing God’s will and adhering to it with all one’s heart and strength without hesitation or complicity with evil, however minor. A transition must be made in real life from the knowledge and love of the divine will to action. Do the will of God, with the difficulties, pain, and hardships this may imply. Jesus is very clear about this. “If any man would ocme after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Gospel). In other words, if anyone wants to do the Father’s will in everything, let him renounce his own thoughts and desires, so human and so far from God’s thoughts and desires. Saint Paul, on his part, asks the Christians of Rome to offer their bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (second reading).
P. Antonio Izqeuirdo, L.C., Copyright © Dicastery for the Clergy
Pastoral Suggestions
In the footsteps of God’s will
The great footsteps of God’s will are first of all inscribed in our very nature, then in our Christian vocation, and finally in our state and condition of life. Therefore, those who live according to their condition as rational and spiritual beings, live as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, and responsibly perform their duties and work. Most of us perceive such obligations relatively easily, but to follow them is a different matter. We find many attractive things that distract us, many obstacles that we are not always ready to overcome, a lot of resistance when we try to behave according to our conscience. What are the distractions, the obstacles, the resistance that we encounter in our milieu, in our parish, in our community, in ourselves?
P. Antonio Izqeuirdo, L.C., Copyright © Dicastery for the Clergy
The cross and the glory
At Easter, the apex of God’s plan for Jesus Christ, the cross and glory are interwoven. In the life of Christians, in God’s plan for each one of us, it is no different. The will of God does not foresee the cross first and then the glory, or vice versa. It is the cross and the glory at the same time. To know and do the will of God entail both the cross and glory, which are different and yet inseparable. Those who do God’s will offer a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God. Those who do the will of God perceive, in the midst of their pain, an inner song of joy and peace, which is a prelude to the glory which they will share with Christ in the kingdom of heaven. There are those who only see the cross, and there are those who only want to see the glory. The real Christian combines both in the will of God, and accepts them with love and joy.
P. Antonio Izqeuirdo, L.C., Copyright © Dicastery for the Clergy