22nd Sunday Ordinary Time August 30, 2026

Readings: Jeremiah 20:7-9 | Romans 12:1-2 | Matthew 16:21-27

Jeremiah is struggling with God, trying to push God out of his life because God wants too much. God does not allow this, but remains in Jeremiah—could we say: giving him heartburn and aching bones? Whatever it is, Jeremiah knows that it is God forcing him to live by His word. Again, we may have experience this at times: knowing what is true and right and what we must do, but resisting it with all the strength that we can muster.

Contrast this to the second reading, from the Letter to the Romans: Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. This letter sounds so serene as if we could simply choose to obey God and do all that God asks. We know, however, that elsewhere Saint Paul tells us that what he wants to do, he cannot do; and that what he does not want to do is what he ends up doing.

Both of these readings prepare us for today’s Gospel from Saint Matthew. Jesus rebukes Simon Peter for tempting Him to avoid what must happen: Jesus is present to us knowing that He must suffer greatly, be killed and be raised from the dead. Even the thought of the resurrection is not enough to take away Jesus’ own repugnance to the suffering and death that He must undergo. Ultimately, both Jeremiah and Jesus accept God’s will and embrace whatever God the Father asks of them. For ourselves, we must identify in our own lives those areas which we either do not want to give to God at all or which we are only able to give a part of. Only as we begin to walk in the Light do we begin to see the darkness in ourselves. Only when we see the darkness can we long for Light. Only when we see our own darkness can we begin the struggle to give ourselves completely to God.

May God the Father, who always loves, lead us into the struggle and give us strength!