Homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time September 15, 2024

Trying to Correct God

Homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

September 15, 2024

There is a story of a man who was bothered with continual ringing in his ears, bulging eyes, and a flushed face. Over a period of three years he went to one doctor after another. One took out his tonsils, one removed his appendix, another pulled his teeth. He even tried goat-gland treatment in Switzerland—all to no avail. Finally, one doctor told him there was no hope—he had six months to live.

The poor fellow quit his job, sold all his belongings and decided to live it up in the time he had left. He went to his tailor and ordered several suits and shirts. The tailor measured his neck and wrote down “16 ½.” The man corrected him. “It’s 15 ½,” he said. The tailor measured again: 16 ½. But the man insisted that he’d always worn a size 15 ½. “Well, all right,” said the tailor. “Just don’t come back here complaining if you have ringing ears, bulging eyes and a flushed face!”

It’s amazing how much we are influenced by our preconceived ideas and sometimes wishful thinking. We find that in today’s gospel passage. Jesus teaches the disciples that he would “suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.”

We find that this just doesn’t fit Peter’s expectations. A Messiah, a Savior, a Son of God simply should not act in this way or allow mockery, rejection, suffering and death to be a part of the picture. And Peter steps in, arguing that this rejection, mockery, suffering and death stuff will not go over well. If he keeps talking in this way, he’s going to alienate a huge percentage of potential followers.

But Jesus, in a particularly forceful way sticks to his teaching and his job description, and expands on it. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” And what’s worse, “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it!”

I believe that many of us are like Peter. We tend to develop a notion of what God is like—or what God should be like. In our prayer we often tell God what God should do, as if, like Peter, we were a Pope. I from time to time encounter someone claiming to be an atheist, finding belief in God impossible. When I question the person about it, I find that what has happened is that the person has defined God, like Peter tried to do, and when it doesn’t fit his thinking, rejects the idea of God.

In difficult situations, such as a cancer diagnosis, the suffering or death of a love one, a world in which the innocent suffer so much, a world full of poverty and injustice—well, a real “God” wouldn’t allow such stuff. Notice Jesus’ response: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do….Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” For whatever reason, the world doesn’t always revolve around our wishes.

But we shouldn’t lose sight of the ultimate goal of Jesus’ teaching…that “the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed”—all this horrifyingly nasty stuff. But he then adds, “and rise after three days.” Through suffering and death, Jesus identifies with the lot of the human race, with all its tragedy, its ignoring the needy, its trampling on justice—and he shows us a pure act of love. There is no greater love, he teaches, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. But Jesus’ teaching doesn’t end there. Nor do cross and tomb have the final say. He will “rise after three days.” Jesus destroys our ultimate and final enemy: death.

So, there’s kind of a tough situation here. The question is: do we adjust to the reality of Jesus teaching as it has been handed on to us? Or do we, like Peter, try to correct God and argue that our way is better? If like the man in the story, we can’t accept the truth of our neck size, will that also be our approach to God—trying to correct the truth?