9.5.20 - Get behind me, Satan! Who am I? Oh yes, and Jeremiah!

Q: Who is Jeremiah?

A: Jeremiah was born about 650BC – 70 years after the fall of the Northern Kingdom and 50 years 60 years before the fall of the Southern Kingdom to Babylon (Judah), the later which included the total destruction of Jerusalem and the First (Solomon’s) Temple.

Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, fell in 612 BC to Babylon, which would soon put an end to the independence of Judah.

Jeremiah is called by God to warn Judah of their impending destruction if they do not mend their ways. The time of our reading is probably 605-610 BC. The King at the time was Jehoiakim, who was not interested in following the Covenant laws of Moses. Idolatry flourished and the poor were forgotten.

Jeremiah had a tough job: he is to preach the destruction of the country and city he loves that was established by God. Moreover, his fellow Judahites don’t like what he has to say and want to punish him or put him to death. Jeremiah realizes that his people are not going to listen, which means they will meet destruction. Yet, he must warn them anyway. Jeremiah (justifiably) laments his situation often. He is known as the “weeping prophet.” Jeremiah speaks as a poet and a mystic, and gives voice to his experiences in bold and even hyperbolic language.

Jeremiah 20:7-9

You seduced me, LORD, and I let myself be seduced; you were too strong for me, and you prevailed. All day long I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.

Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage I proclaim;

The word of the LORD has brought me reproach and derision all day long. I say I will not mention him, I will no longer speak in his name.

But then it is as if fire is burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary and cannot hold back!

Some translations say “duped me” instead of “seduced me.” But God did neither. This is Jeremiah’s lamenting his being stuck between a rock and a hard place (damned if I do, damned if I don’t!).

10-12 (this is not in today’s reading but I thought you should see verse 12)

Yes, I hear the whisperings of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!” All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine.

“Perhaps he can be tricked; then we will prevail, and take our revenge on him.”

But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not prevail. In their failure they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion.

Jeremiah boasts of the Lord as much as he laments his circumstances.

The Church intends us to see Jeremiah’s words in a messianic sense. Jeremiah was a type, image, and forerunner of the Messiah, the suffering servant.

Context of Gospel Reading of Matthew 16

Last week, Peter response to Jesus was literally provided by God; this week, Peter’s response seems to be provided by Satan himself. Last week, Peter revealed the spectacular news about who Jesus really was, and Jesus then designated him head of his earthly Church. Immediately following that passage is today’s reading where Jesus reveals the totally unexpected, horrifying news of what comes next – arrest, derision, torture, death. Nobody in human history has ever been that right, and then that wrong, within 10 verses, as Peter.

Now, to cut Peter some slack, let’s remember that, up until now, the endgame in the Apostles’ minds was success and glory for the Chosen People, particularly the 12 Apostles. Peter just heard he was the head of this brand, new group of Christians, and suddenly Jesus is saying good-bye and that the road to glory is a path involving much suffering and horrific events.

Matthew 16: 20-27

From that time on, 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 him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! This thing must not 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? 27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct. 28 Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Now there is a LOT to tackle here but I’d first like to address Versus 27 and 28 first. V28 was not in today’s reading but it is the cause of confusion so I wanted to explain it.

In V27, Jesus is talking about the end of mankind. His second coming. The Parousia. The final judgement.

V28 refers to Jesus’ kingdom which is here, begun at his Resurrection-Ascension. In this age, we are helping to build up Jesus’ kingdom – that’s the job of all Christians – in preparation for his second coming/judgement.

Now on to the main story…

From that time on, 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.

The statement “From that time on…” tells us everything has now changed. Jesus’ 3-year ministry has begun its final chapter.

The reason it was so hard for Paul to explain Christianity on his three journeys was because the cross was considered the worst punishment ever, only for the very worst of people. To claim Jesus was the Son of God and then crucified by the Roman State was cause enough for most people to walk away in disbelief – or stone him. It was no less incredulous for the Apostles to hear this.

Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! This thing shall never happen to you.”

Jesus had just told them the most important thing he had to do to win mankind’s salvation after he rose on the 3rd day, but Peter hears none of that. Peter pulls Jesus aside and speaks to him as though he had lost his mind.

Some non-Catholics think that Catholics believe the Pope cannot err, so they will point to this big mistake of Peter’s as proof that he is not “infallible.” However, no one – not Jesus nor the Church – ever said the Pope is free from error or sin. Papal infallibility is much weaker than most people understand it: it refers to the Pope’s official teaching. Last week, Jesus did not say to Peter: “You are Peter and you will never sin again.” What He said was: “What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” As we discussed, “bind and loose” are terms referring to the “halakhah” teaching authority. In the OT, that referred to interpretation and application Mosaic laws to everyday life; in the NT, that refers to the interpretation and application of Christ’s teachings to everyday life.

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.”

We know that Satan is at work again – this time through Peter – trying to deflect Jesus from going through with this mission. We know that because Jesus uses the same words as when he dismissed Satan in the desert: “Get behind me, Satan!” (Mk 8:33). Get behind me is also translated as “Be gone!” or “Get out of my way.” The other important thing to be aware of is that, at that time, the word “satan” meant “adversary; one who plots against; someone who throws something across the path of another.” Satan did not become a proper name for the Devil until many years later.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Q: “Deny oneself,” “forget oneself,” and “leave self behind” are other translations, but what does this mean?

A: It comes down to the definition of love (and humility). Love means to will the good of another. We are to practice giving it away; only then does it grow. Jesus shows the true perfection of love, which is to love even to one’s death. He forgave everyone even as he hung on the cross.

Q: Cross. What does it mean to “take up one’s cross and follow me”?

A: To live for God and the “other,” one will have trials (=crosses to carry), such as…

• trials of improving one’s character, such as not seeking credit, giving credit away, doing the right thing at work or play, practicing honesty at all times, saying please, thank you, and I’m sorry, practicing encouraging others, and tackling the more difficult/more important tasks first in your day.

• trials of inconvenience, such as kindness, patience, and service when you’d rather hang out on the couch and play games/watch TV;

• trials of great sacrifice, such as giving up many, or big, things for the good of others;

• trials of suffering things that may not have any particular fault, such as sickness, accidents, didn’t get the job, or being gracious about any misfortunes.

The fact is that if God/others come first, then, just logically speaking, ‘self’ will suffer one way or another. That is our cross.

Now, when we suffer or sacrifice, we are not supposed to whine, complain, point fingers, blame the world, or look absolutely miserable so the world can see how much we are suffering. For if we do it for others to see, then Jesus says that is our reward – and we’ve wasted a good suffering! Instead, Jesus expects a dignified behavior:

When you fast (or sacrifice or suffer…), wash your face and comb your hair. Then your fasting won’t be obvious. Instead, it will be obvious to your Father who is with you in private. Your Father sees what you do in private. He will reward you.” – Matthew 6:17-19

There are three benefits to taking up one’s cross:

1. Grace for the ongoing strengthening of character, which is our journey towards our true, higher self from our egoic, lower self;

2. Wisdom – because God’s wisdom is concealed in every mistake, difficulty, and suffering, but only if we patiently seek it;

3. Treasure in heaven – everything we do for others, every sacrifice we make, every suffering we offer up to the Lord, is deposited into our treasury in heaven.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Q: What is Jesus talking about?

A: Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it: Jesus is talking about trying to save our worldly life, our old self, our life before God was in it.

Once we have God as our copilot, which starts with Baptism and is developed with practice and the sacraments, then we have new life; our new self. When we have trained well enough, then we can switch places with Him.

Q: Discussions about our “old self” and the “new self” begs the question: Who are we? Who am I?

A: There’s an easy way to separate the old and new self. The old self, or worldly self, is a Human Doing, not a Human Being. Human doings are merely products of our physical and material accomplishments. If we are successful, we garner a certain level of respect and “apparent value.” If we are unemployed – or unemployable – then we have very little respect and our apparent value is tiny. The problem is that, even though we may be successful today, if we lose it all tomorrow, then suddenly we are nothing. Therefore, the value of our “worldly self” is not intrinsic, it is extrinsic: it is based on worldly things, which come and go. We are only the products of our “current” worldly accomplishments and status.

On the other hand, God says that where we are born, and all of our worldly accomplishments, don’t mean diddly squat by themselves; but that we all have equal dignity (= significant value) in His eyes because He gave us that value. Conversely, all “human-assigned value” is illusory, fool’s gold, as we have shown.

In God’s example, the “Who am I?” is a Human Being. We exist because of God and therefore we exist with dignity. That is the starting point of who we are, and nobody can take that away.

Another way of looking at who we are:

Most spiritual secularists believe we are merely physical beings seeking a spiritual experience. However, according to Pierre Teilard de Chardin (French Jesuit, biologist, philosopher):

“We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.”

The reason is our God-given dignity and spirits are part of our soul, our true identity. Our physical bodies are our partners, but they would be empty shells without our souls.

It doesn’t matter what station in life we are born into, or what luck we might have had or didn’t have; what matters is what good we did with what we have.

Now this doesn’t mean our physical lives are not important. They are extremely important because our physical lives are where our spiritual lives play out; and that determines what happens in our next life.

Remember the parable of the talents. The talents represent the gifts we were given. Some received 10 talents, some 5, some 1. What mattered wasn’t how may gifts we had, but what we did with them. If God gave us one talent and all we return to Him is one talent, then that means we did nothing good with our lives.

And those who are given lots of benefits/talents don’t get off easy. For those who are given more, more will be expected from them.

"From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded." (Luke 12:48).

Q: Doesn’t it sound like Jesus is repeating himself in this passage?

A: It does, but he’s not. The second one refers to those who are given great authority, particularly those in the Church. Much, much, much is expected.

One of the paradoxes of our humanity is that the less we have and the more we suffer, the more we seek God. Then, when we succeed, we suddenly don’t need God anymore and then we lose Him along with all the truly good things. That is the story of the OT over and over and over again. Yet, we continue to fall into this trap. So, if you are successful, try to break the trend.

What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?

The Fall of Man is the to think we don’t need God. The worldly man’s goal is to live now for all the glory he can achieve by himself, for himself; to seek to fill his life up with as many achievements and possessions as he can. “I did it my way. This is equivalent to selling one’s soul in exchange for this world. One is eternal, the other is short term and short-sighted.

Which leads us to the next question…

Q1: What is our soul?

A: Our soul is the entirety of who we are. It is what makes our bodies function as human beings. It is our mind, our heart, our free will, our conscience, and it is spiritual and immortal. It is our window/portal to God and it is how the Holy Spirit enters into us.

And, amazingly, because of free will, we control whether God enters or doesn’t. We control our own destiny.

Painting: Roman Decadence (picture of hell). Mother Teresa