A lectionary meditation for our twenty-second week of Ordinary Time in 2026

There is a fabric to humanity that feels like it is fraying and near the point of tearing. Insatiable men, people who are incapable of self-reflection or restraint, grab and pull fists full of fibers from our one shared fabric. Many with power and platforms are working to transform the vices of hatred, anger, and violence into virtues. Each one of these is addictive, like a drug with hooks sinking deep into our being and leaving us crying out for our next fix. Each is an instant pleasurable release opposed to the slow tenderness of love and grace. Many of these people are using religion and the Cross of Christ to do this. A vile darkness from their hearts spews forth into our world, attempting to cover the light of God in Christ. Is there Gospel hope for us?

The way of the Cross does not make sense to those caught up devouring our world. It isn’t just our modern-day pundits, billionaires, and oligarchs who didn’t understand the Cross – it was the Apostle Peter too. Jesus explained to His disciples that His death would be soon and at the hands of power and authority. It was Peter that flat-out rejected what must come. Imagine pulling Jesus aside to rebuke Him shortly after you proclaimed Him to be the Christ and Messiah. God had allowed Peter the faith to see Jesus as the Christ and the Son of Man. Peter could not yet see beyond the horizons of his world. If Jesus were to be killed, to him it would also kill the future for their growing Jesus movement. The hopes and dreams Peter and countless others had put upon the shoulders of Jesus would die as His shoulders sank with His last breath on the cross.

Jesus was fast and sharp in His rebuke of Peter. “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Peter was not like the insatiable men who are tearing the fabric of humanity apart today. Peter was unable to see beyond the same horizons that trap those men. Years walking, talking, listening, and sharing life with Jesus had not raised the eyes of Peter to see beyond the horizons of this life. He did not yet understand that there are divine things and there are human things. That things can been seen with human eyes, or with divine eyes. The way of Jesus and the Cross are darkness for us as humans. Across the Roman Empire, the cross was the dark of the grave and the end of possibility. The Cross is, in that exact same moment, the blinding light of the divine. The cross looks like failure and loss, but it is mercy and love.

It is here that Jesus turns away from Peter to address all the disciples with Him. “If anyone wants to follow Me, they must deny themself, take up their cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save their soul will lose it; but whoever loses their life for My sake will find it.” The person, ministry, and life of Jesus reject such a narrow view. It rejects the idea that there are people outside our one human family or who live beyond the love of God.

Our second reading this week comes from Romans, and I could just place the whole thing here. Every sentence of it embodies the rebuke that Jesus gave. For me there is this passage that is so often confused in the world around me. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” May I never forget that when I was worthy of vengeance from God, I was found with loving kindness that transformed my heart and soul. This is how our God chooses to repay us for what we’ve done and haven’t done. To adopt us as children, to make us heirs with Christ, and to abound in loving mercy.

So I sit here prayerfully meditating, writing, and hoping to meet the strength and faith God has for me in the moments of history that feel near at hand. It is not enough to proclaim that I reject the claims for authority, violence, hatred, and dehumanization of those insatiable men. I need a way to live against the tides of our age. I am so grateful for our monastic lives. I pray that we will embody our skepticism of money and power (chapter 25) by rejecting their assumptions of how the world must work. I pray that our lives will model to our world a rejection of acts of violence and a refusal to kill (chapter 26). These cannot be moments but must be a part of what it means for me to live my life.

There would be many things that Jesus would say if He were standing with us today. I will never claim to know the full heart and mind of God. Yet this one thing I do know. The words of Jesus in Matthew 16 must echo within the hollow hearts of the insatiable men who want tyranny over our lives and world. “For what good is it if someone gains the whole world yet loses their soul?” For the rest of us, may we do justice and love kindness and to walk humbly with our God. For I believe that only justice, kindness, and humility can mend the fabric of our humanity. Walk with me, beloved. Carry your cross as I carry mine. Together let us walk upon the path our God has made for us.

May our lives radiate with the light of His Cross in a darkening world.

Readings for the 22^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time · Year A

Sunday readings according to the Revised Common Lectionary.

Photo Credit
Paul Prins on 22 April 2024 in Paris