Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
Gospel Matthew 16:21-27 (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)
At 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.’
A Man for All Seasonsis 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.
Gospel Matthew 16:21-27 (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England &
Wales, Scotland, India)
At 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.’
A Man for All Seasonsis 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].
On Sundays
in Ordinary Time the First Reading and the Gospel are linked thematically
whereas the Second Reading is from one of the Letters of St Paul read over the
course of a number of Sundays. But this Sunday it is closely related to the
other two readings in that it reminds us that as followers of Jesus we are
called to be living sacrifices:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the
mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy
and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is
good and acceptable and perfect (Romans
12:1-2).
The Prophet Jeremiah discovers the cost of doing
God's will: I have become a laughing-stock all the day; everyone
mocks me . . . For the word of the Lord has become for me a
reproach and derision all day long (Jeremiah 20:7,8).
St Peter cannot abide the thought of any such thing
happening to Jesus: God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.
He receives an extraordinary rebuke from Jesus: 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.
The Crucifixion of St Peter
Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art] If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
St Peter in giving unwanted and unhelpful 'advice'
to Jesus had no idea of the price he himself would pay for following in the
footsteps of the Lord. He was following human thinking, not God's. This
incident shows that our thinking has consequences. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in
Christ Jesus, says St Paul in
Philippians 2:5. This is what our baptism calls us to. Everything we do is
meant to be in accordance with God's thinking, with God's will. Since 2019 here in the Republic of Ireland which has an estimated population of about five-and-a-half million, about 60,000 children have been legally killed before birth. The law allowing this
came into effect on New Year's Day 2019, the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God.
The law was the foreseen consequence of a referendum in May 2018 when
two-thirds of those who voted chose to 'repeal' Article 8 of the Constitution
that protected the life of the unborn child and of the mother. Based on the
census of 2016 nearly eighty per-cent of the voters identified themselves as
Catholic. The majority of legislators who legalised abortion-on-demand were
Catholics by background, one of them a regular lector at Sunday Mass in her
parish.
This is a glaring example of what the late Fr Jaime Bulatao SJ, a Filipino,
labelled in 1966 Split-level Christianity. (I took some classes under Fr
Bulatao in the summer of 1974). Promoting or supporting abortion is
incompatible with the Catholic Christian faith.
In his encyclical Laudato si'No 120, Pope Francis states: Since
everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also
incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the
importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or
inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its
presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? 'If personal and social
sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of
acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away'.
Some politicians who identify themselves as Catholics are now promoting
abortion as a 'right'. And many people who work for the dignity of every human
life from conception to death are condemned as persons with no interest in the
welfare of children and others after birth, a total lie. Mary Wagner is a Canadian woman who has spent much time
in prison for peacefully proclaiming the humanity of the unborn child and for
trying to offer mothers an alternative to abortion. Another Canadian who has
spent much time in prison for totally silent witness outside abortion centres
is Linda Gibbons. I am sure that these two extraordinary
witnesses to our Christian faith must have experienced what the Prophet
Jeremiah expresses in today's First Reading: If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any
more in his name”, 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. Please pray for them. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross and follow me.
Consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these (Matthew 6:28-29; Gospel).
GospelMatthew 16:13-20 (English Standard Version Anglicised)
At that time: When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’
And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others
Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I
am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And
Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has
not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you
are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ Then he strictly charged the disciples to
tell no one that he was the Christ.
This week I'm using what I've used before, with some slight editing. Again I fall back on Pope Benedict XVI. This is the Angelus talk on today's gospel that he gave on 24 August 2008 in Castel Gandolfo. I have highlighted parts of it, something I found difficult to do as it is so deep and rich - and yet so clear and simple.
Brothers and Sisters, This Sunday's liturgy addresses to us Christians but also at the same time to every man and every woman the double question that one day Jesus put to his disciples. He first asked them: ‘Who do men say that the Son of man is?’ They answered him saying that some of the people said John the Baptist restored to life, others Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. The Lord then directly questioned the Twelve: ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter spoke enthusiastically and authoritatively on behalf of them all: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. This solemn profession of faith the Church continues to repeat since then. Today too, we long to proclaim with an innermost conviction: ‘Yes, Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God!’ Let us do so in the awareness that Christ is the true ‘treasure’ for whom it is worth sacrificing everything; he is the friend who never abandons us for he knows the most intimate expectations of our hearts. Jesus is the ‘Son of the living God’, the promised Messiah who came down to earth to offer humanity salvation and to satisfy the thirst for life and love that dwells in every human being. What an advantage humanity would have in welcoming this proclamation which brings with it joy and peace!
‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus answers Peter's inspired profession of faith: ‘You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven’. This is the first time that Jesus speaks of the Church, whose mission is the actuation of God's great design to gather the whole of humanity into a single family in Christ. Peter's mission, and that of his Successors, is precisely to serve this unity of the one Church of God formed of Jews and pagans of all peoples; his indispensable ministry is to ensure that she is never identified with a single nation, with a single culture, but is the Church of all peoples - to make present among men and women, scarred by innumerable divisions and conflicts, God's peace and the renewing power of his love. This, then, is the special mission of the Pope, Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter: to serve the inner unity that comes from God's peace, the unity of those who have become brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
In the face of the enormous responsibility of this task, I am increasingly aware of the commitment and importance of the service to the Church and the world that the Lord has entrusted to me. I therefore ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to support me with your prayers so that, faithful to Christ, we may proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. May Mary, whom we invoke with trust as Mother of the Church and Star of Evangelization, obtain this grace for us.
Pope Benedict's short reflection touches on so many fundamental things. Our faith as Christians is in the Person of Jesus Christ, God who became Man. Jesus calls us into a personal relationship with him, not in an exclusive 'You and I only' sense but in an intimate 'You, I and all of us' sense as members of the Church with a common mission given by Jesus to the Church.
As members of the Church we share in the mission given us by Jesus Christ. Pope Benedict says, I therefore ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to support me with your prayers so that, faithful to Christ, we may proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time.
Our common mission is to proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. That means that Jesus calls each of us to realise that every person we meet is meant to meet Jesus in us - in every aspect of our lives, private and public.
Yet so many politicians, for example, who announce to the world that they are faithful Catholics promote the evils of abortion and the genital mutilation of confused minors who think they want to be the opposite sex. Many voters who see themselves as faithful Catholics support them in this. This, in effect, is saying that Jesus Christ our Saviour promotes the killing of unborn children and the physical/sexual abuse of minors.
Pope Benedict by addressing us as Dear brothers and sisters, reminds us of our deepest identity: we are sons and daughters of God the Father through our baptism. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus through our baptism. As such, we are brothers and sisters of one another through baptism.
Our baptism, through which we have received our Christian faith, is pure gift from God. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. We are called by baptism to proclaim the presence of Jesus in the world so that others may come to know Him. Pope Benedict doesn't mention baptism specifically but everything he says makes sense only in the context of our having been baptised.
Jesus through his Church does not identify himself with any particular nation or with any particular ethnic group. Yet he speaks to each nation, to each group, to each individual within their own culture. Some years ago in the Philippines when celebrating Sunday Mass in a home for girls most of whom had been abused before going there, I showed during my homily a very poor black-and-white reproduction of Rembrandt's painting above. One girl, aged about 14, asked me if she could have the picture. (I later had a proper copy made and framed for her). I asked her what had attracted her in the painting. He is so human, she said. This painting done in Amsterdam nearly 400 years before spoke to her heart. Rembrandt, through his painting in which he had a Jewish refugee from Spain as a model, was able to proclaim and bear witness to the presence of Jesus in our time to a young girl in the Philippines in the 21st century who had suffered greatly.
These are some random thoughts. Pope Benedict's Angelus message has so much in it and can be a source of prayer and contemplation in trying to answer the question Jesus puts before us today: But who do you say that I am?
Collect from the Mass for the Pope
O God, who in your providential design
willed that your Church be built
upon blessed Peter, whom you set over the other Apostles, look with favour, we pray, on Francis our Pope
and grant that he, whom you have made Peter's successor, may be for your people a visible source and foundation
of unity in faith and of communion.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Tu es Petrus
Setting by Palestrina
Sung by Yonsei University Concert Choir, South Korea
conducted by Hae Ock Eunice Kim Bang
Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversum eam. Et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum.
You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:18-19; today's gospel).
Traditional Latin Mass
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English ishere. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 08-23-2026 if necessary).
At that time Jesus declared, ‘I
thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things
from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes,
Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me
by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the
Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to
me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will
find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’
The Rule of St Francis states that brothers are forbidden to ride on horseback, unless compelled by manifest necessity or infirmity. Many years ago I asked a Capuchin Franciscan friar about this, thinking that it had something to do with the kindness to animals that we associate with St Francis. He explained to me that the horse was the 'Mercedes of the day' in the time of St Francis. So it was a matter of poverty, humility and simplicity for the Franciscan friars not to ride a horse.
Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and and having salvation is he,humble and mounted on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9, First Reading).
The gospels tell us that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday, as the Prophet Zechariah foretells in today's First Reading. Peter Bruegel the Elder in his wonderful painting The Census at Bethlehem shows our Blessed Mother, heavily pregnant with her Son, riding on a donkey led by St Joseph. Many paintings of the Flight into Egypt, such as that of Melchior Broederlam below, show Mary carrying the Infant Jesus on a donkey.
In today's gospel Jesus says to the Father: you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. One of many experiences I had of this was in the spring of 1969 north of New York City. A fellow Columban priest had introduced me to a large Italian-American family whose house had that 'well lived-in' look about it. They invited me to the First Holy Communion of their youngest daughter, Betsy. I wasn't able to attend the Mass but joined the family with the other priest for dinner that evening.
Here in Ireland it is the custom for children on their First Holy Communion day to visit their relatives and family friends who give them some money. We have an expression for someone who is tight-fisted (kuripot in the Philippines): 'He still has his First Communion money'. I discovered that at least in the New York area they have a similar custom. During the evening at Betsy's house I learned that she had received $100 that day, an enormous sum for her. Her mother told her that we two priests were missionaries and that missionaries depended on the money that people gave them.
When Betsy heard this she immediately wanted to give us her $100. We were both embarrassed and made an excuse that we didn't need the money right there and then. But the real gift that Betsy gave me, a gift I still have, though not as something hoarded but something living and to be shared, was her pure act of love on the day of her First Holy Communion. Like the widow in the gospels of St Mark and St Luke, she wanted to give everything she had. You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.
The photo at the top was taken maybe 16 years ago on Pentecost Sunday when I baptised and confirmed some of the girls in Holy Family Home for Girls, Bacolod City, run by the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family. Most of the girls there come from a background of poverty and the majority have experienced being abused before they were referred to the home by social workers. None of them owned the white dresses they were wearing that day. They were focused on receiving the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion. They knew they would be receiving Jesus Christ the Risen Lord himself, 'Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity', not a symbolic piece of bread. And what greater humility can God show than to come to us in the form of bread?
I was involved with Holy Family Home for Girls from the end of 2002 until June 2017 and I would say that that involvement was the biggest blessing from God in my life as a priest. So often I experienced there the truth of the words of Jesus today: You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.
Again, that is an ongoing blessing from God, as is the blessing I received from God through Betsy 57 years ago. I met her some years after that and reminded her about the incident. She didn't remember it. But, with God's grace, I do. So often God reveals himself through persons, usually of 'no standing', who have no idea of how powerfully and profoundly they are sharing His love.
Going back to the words of Zechariah in the First Reading, Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and and having salvation is he,humble and mounted on a donkey, we also find a humble donkey present at the birth of Jesus. El Greco in the painting above has the animal in the shadows just to the left of our Blessed Mother.
Antiphona ad introitum Entrance Antiphon Cf Ps 47:10-11
Suscepimus, Deus, misericordiam tuam in medio templi tui.
Your merciful love, O God, we have received in the midst of your temple.
Secundum nomen tuum, Deus, ita et laus tua in fines terrae; iustitia plena est dextera tua.
Your praise, O God, like your name, reaches the ends if the earth; your right hand is filled with saving justice.
Traditional Latin Mass
Sixth Sunday After Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English ishere. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-05-2026 if necessary).
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4; Epistle).
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