This Sermon is prepared by
Rev.Fr.Peter Jayakanthan sss
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi Catholic Church,
Houston, Texas, US
22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time-YearNever…..Before Him…! Ever…Behind Him!Jer20:7-9; Rom 12:1-2; Mt16:21-27Dear Sisters, Brothers and Children, We are gathered to glorify the Lord as His disciples. We remember Journalist James Foley who courageously stood out against evil and faced death for living his faith. We shall bring forth all the journalists and people of faith who still face threat and attacks by Islamic terrorist groups. The attitude of forming the separate Islamic state may be changed to create a state with a humanity of love and peace.“Don’t tell me what to do” this sentence is used so often when children grow up. This comes in between parents and teenage children. We human beings want to do our ways; we don’t like others to command over us. Sometime we follow the same approach with God. We demand from God, Lord you have to provide me with a good job in three months. Lord you have to offer me a beautiful home by next summer. Lord you have to make me richer than my enemy Joe. All these prayers are centered on my selfish interest. I try to imagine my thoughts of God. Jesus will say get behind me, you cannot walk before me, and you are supposed to walk behind me. This is the call offered to all of us from the readings of today. In the Gospel, we have Peter who was proclaimed last Sunday as Rock and strong stone is now blamed today as a stumbling block or shaky stone. Why is he called by Jesus as a stumbling block and Satan? Peter wanted a struggle-free, suffering-free and pain-free Jesus, always with Apostles, with glory, with power and performing miracles. He did not want the Jerusalem Jesus of suffering; he wanted the Jesus of Galilee. Whenever we don’t allow the thoughts of God to come in and flow into our life, then we are stumbling blocks. We become stumbling blocks when we put our thoughts, desires and wishes first, before we get to know, discern and allow the plan of God for me. Peter wanted Jesus not to journey to Jerusalem, rather he wants Jesus be there always with them. We observe on two other occasions, how Jesus confronts where people keep their desire first. Martha asking Jesus to “tell Mary to help her”. Jesus never liked others to tell Him what to do. When the mother of James and John seeks Jesus to reward her sons at the right and left Side in God’s kingdom? Jesus tells her, “your ways and thoughts are not God’s ways”; these are stumbling blocks and hurdles for God’s plan, so the power of obstruction is the power of evil, the power of Satan. So Jesus calls Peter as Satan. ‘Get out of my way, you don’t tell me want to do; you are supposed to be behind me, never before me….always behind me.’ Jesus is also teaching a technique of discipleship: they are denying, carrying and following. Denying means disowning myself, I am not the center of my life, and I don’t own my life. Secondly, carrying refers to the struggle while giving up my thoughts and plans, carrying the pain while losing, and finally following His will, His plan and Him alone. Origen suggests that Jesus was saying to Peter: "Peter, your place is behind me, not in front of me. It's your job to follow me in the way I choose, not to try to lead me in the way YOU would like me to go." In the first reading, we have the expressions of Jeremiah; He motivated King Josiah’s religious and political reform in Judah. Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, was preserved with the support of the Prophet Jeremiah while facing all the threats and attacks. But later idolatry and infidelity broke their covenantal relationship with Yahweh. Jeremiah ministered for forty years. Jeremiah was present to witness the entry of Babylonian control in Judah in 597 B.C and their destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 587 B.C. Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar II brought down the four centuries of monarchical independence of the Jews. Jeremiah really felt for the dying Judah and cried out his anguish to Yahweh. He foretold the capturing and destruction of Jerusalem, challenging the unfaithful and ingratitude of the people, because He spoke the mind of God. But he was condemned as a traitor by his own people for doing this. Jeremiah spoke out against rulers, priests and leaders for breaking the covenant of Yahweh. He was put into stocks by a temple priest Pashhur and beaten with torture. Jeremiah’s name means elaborated or prolonged lamentations. After going through all this, he expressed his feeling to the Lord, saying, ‘you have cheated me Lord’. He thought it was a test from God, that his good deed and proclamation brought him trial and torture. He endured all these because his yes to his call was out of love and total faith. In the recent events in Iraq and the exodus of Christians from the attacks invite us to check whether we keep Jesus before us or we keep our wishes in front of us. The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, Emil Nona, who has been forced to leave his diocese, along with all Iraqis who refuse to convert to Islam, the Archbishop told Italian Press: “As we consider the conflicts around the world involving Islamic terrorist groups, it is clear that… they are a serious threat not only in the Middle East, but to the U.S., Europe, and to all civilized nations. What can we do in the face of such evil? Islamic militant terrorists ISIS is giving non-Muslims in Iraq three options in one week: leave, convert or die. In August, WWM reported that Qasha, an elderly paralytic, was moved from his home in Qaraqosh after ISIS members threatened him with weapons giving him one week to leave, convert to Islam or "face the sword." Qasha eventually found his grandson and was taken to Ankawa, Iraq, the predominantly Christian suburb in the province of Erbil. ISIS has reportedly been giving the ultimatum since the group took over Mosul, the capital of the Nineveh providence in northern Iraq, in June. The group also threatened to impose a "special tax" on Iraqi Christians. Thousands of Christians left Mosul in July after the group gave the ultimatum saying that if they did comply there would be 'nothing for them but the sword." James Foley was captured in Libya in 2011, then when he was offered a permission to write a letter to his family, these were his words, ‘we can turn to Our Lady and pray the Rosary. Just as the Ottoman naval fleet seemed destined to take control of the Mediterranean and invade southern Europe at the Battle of Lepanto, the Islamic State and other terrorist groups are determined to establish a “Caliphate” that includes the Middle East, parts of Africa, and even Spain. Foley wrote: "I began to pray the rosary. It was what my mother and grandmother would have prayed. I said 10 Hail Marys between each Our Father. It took a long time, almost an hour to count 100 Hail Marys off on my knuckles. And it helped to keep my mind focused. Clare Gillis and I prayed together out loud. It felt energizing to speak our weaknesses and hopes together, as if in a conversation with God, rather than silently and alone." These are the few words from his final letter to his family before being beheaded “I pray for you to stay strong and to believe. I really feel I can touch you even in this darkness when I pray.” I'd pray to stay strong. I'd pray to soften the hearts of our captors. I'd pray to God to lift the burdens we couldn't handle. And I'd pray that our Moms would know we were OK. The thoughts and actions of these who keep Jesus before denying other things, in the presence terrorist militants, should challenge us to be behind Jesus ever following Him-Amen. 
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