'Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.' Sunday Reflections, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

Apostle Peter in Prison

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24; Gospel).

Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 16:21-27 (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)

From that time Jesus began to show 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. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Päivi Maria Räsänen

[Wikipedia; photo]

Päivi Räsänen is a member of the Finnish parliament who served as Minister of the Interior from 2011 to 2015, is married to a Lutheran pastor, has five children and ten grandchildren and is a physician by profession. 

On Thursday 31 August and Friday 1 September she was being tried along with Bishop Juhana Pohjola of an independent Lutheran church before the Helsinki Court of Appeal. As the Catholic Herald (England) reports: Along with Räsänen, a Finnish Lutheran bishop named Juhana Pohjola is also being tried for hate speech for publishing a pamphlet written by Räsänen that advocated for the biblical understanding of sexuality and marriage. Though they were unanimously acquitted by a Finnish District Court in 2022, prosecutors appealed their acquittal to the Helsinki Court of Appeal. 

There is a report of the case in the Court of Appeal here. A verdict is expected by 30 November.

The words of Jeremiah in today's First Reading I'm sure resonate with Mrs Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola: For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. The words of Jesus in the Gospel tell us clearly the price of following hm: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

A Man for All Seasons is a movie made in 1966, written by Robert Bolt and based on his stage play with the same title. It is based on the life of St Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England during the time of King Henry VIII. His position would be similar to that of Prime Minister today. More refuses to  sign a letter asking Pope Clement VII to annul the marriage of the King to Catherine of Aragon who had not borne him a son. Eventually More is found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death.

During his trial Sir Thomas More discovers that Richard Rich, who had given perjured testimony against him, had been made Attorney General for Wales as a reward for this. The laws of England were about to be extended to Wales, a country of 20,779 square kilometres in the west of the island of Britain which also includes England and Scotland. More says to Rich, Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world - but for Wales? [3:30 - 4:20 in the video above]. The saint is referring to today's Gospel: For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

St Thomas More was beheaded on 6 July 1535. St John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was the only English bishop to refuse to accept King Henry VIII as head of the Church in England. He too was executed, on 22 June 1535. The feast day of both is celebrated on 22 June. Both can be seen as martyrs for the sacrament of matrimony, since King Henry set himself up as head of the Church because the Pope would not declare null an void his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Päivi Maria Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola are being harassed because they say that marriage is between man and woman. That is what our Christian faith demands. Nature itself reinforces this.

King Henry VIII attacked and mocked marriage by his behaviour and brought about a break in the Church in England, followed by bloody persecution. Today there is division in the Catholic Church over the sacredness of marriage, with a majority of bishops in Germany, for example, giving the green light to priests to 'bless' 'unions' between two persons of the same sex, while asserting that such 'blessings' and 'unions' are not the sacrament of marriage. The Pillar reported this week: In the Aug. 21 letter, Archbishop Heiner Koch assures the Berlin archdiocese’s priests, deacons, and lay pastoral workers that he will not take disciplinary action against them if they bless couples 'who cannot or do not want to marry sacramentally.' These couples include those living in adulterous relationships.

We are living in times where it is becoming more and more difficult to proclaim the Gospel, even in countries such as Finland where two-thirds of its population of almost six million are nominally Christian, mostly Lutheran. There are about 16,000 Catholics there. We are living in times, at least in the Western world, where one can be condemned for asserting that males are males and females are females and that the one cannot become the other. Such assertions are not professions of faith but statements of scientific fact.

Yes, our faith asserts this too. In the first account of creation we read: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27). We further read in Genesis 2:24 in the second account of creation: Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Jesus quotes this text in the gospels of St Matthew (19:5) and Mark (10:8) as does St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (5:31).

To reject what science and the Word of God  teaches us is a grave affront to God our Creator, a rejection of the teaching of Jesus, God who became Man and of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

But Jesus reassures us in today's Gospel: For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. May we take him at his word, as Finnish Lutherans Päivi Maria Räsänen and Bishop Juhana Pohjola have done, and praise him with hearts full of gratitude and hope.

Psalm 117 [116]

Setting by William Byrd

Sung by Voces8

Praise our Lord all ye Gentiles, praise him all ye peoples,

Because his mercy is confirmed upon us, and his truth remaineth for ever. Amen.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-03-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: Galatians 5:16-24. Gospel: Matthew 6:24-33.

Lorsch Gospels

German Miniaturist [Web Gallery of Art]

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: No one can serve two masters . . . (Matthew 6:24; Gospel).