22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (2023)

Renovations to Holy Redeemer Church, our parish’s main church, have begun. A construction fence went up last week, a port-a-potty was delivered, and if you are a subscriber to our parish’s Flocknotes or have looked at our bulletin cover today, you’ll see a picture of the beginning of the site work. They are expected to pour the foundation and elevator shaft concrete this week. It’s exciting to get the project underway and begin transforming Holy Redeemer to meet the future needs of our parish community. It has been years in the planning.

The project’s focal point is the building of an addition to house an elevator on the parking lot side of the church. The expansion will include a more attractive side entrance to the church and parish center, a new sacristy, and additional seating on the church level. A large stained glass window depiction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy Redeemer, will face onto Old Harbor Road. Improvements will include additional bathrooms, sanctuary enlargement, new pews, and floor coverings. With the completion of the project, we will have physically transformed Holy Redeemer Church.

I want to take a moment to remind you that the Holy Redeemer Annual Collection is ongoing. We conduct this collection during August and September. It helps supplement our parish budget during the quieter winter months. Any proceeds above what we have budgeted for the collection will augment the renovation Capital Campaign conducted last summer. If you have undertaken a renovation project of your own, you know that unexpected additional projects arise that need attention to make the renovations complete. We will use additional funds for those purposes. If you haven’t already forwarded your contribution to the Annual Collection, please use the insert in today’s bulletin to send along with your donation. 

Transformation is the theme for today’s readings. The setting for today’s gospel continues to be a visit by Jesus and the Apostles to the environs of Caesarea Phillipi. Caesarea Phillipi was the Roman administrative capital of Palestine. It was also the location of a major pagan shrine. Located in the north-west of Galilee, it was physically and spiritually the polar opposite of Jerusalem.

Last week, Jesus paused there during His journey to ask the Apostles who people said that He was. Peter proclaimed he believed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This statement was a tremendous transformation for Peter and the Apostles. Jesus praised Peter because Peter showed he was open to God’s grace, which helped him come to that revelation.

Jesus then tells the Apostles His mission is about to be transformed. His preaching and healing ministry in Galilee is about to end as He travels to Jerusalem to undergo His passion, crucifixion, death, and resurrection on the third day. Jesus warns His disciples taking up the cross is a difficult road, and He and they will suffer greatly at the hands of the Jerusalem religious authorities in the process.  

Peter responds he won’t let that happen to Jesus. He has a vision of how Jesus will fulfill the role of the Messiah, and his shameful death on the cross isn’t part of it. Peter resists the need to transform his thinking. He is unable to understand that the cross is Jesus’ destiny and part of God’s plan for Jesus to be a servant Messiah who gives His life so all humanity can be born to eternal life. Jesus warns Peter his resistance to God’s will and reluctance to change his thinking will cause Peter to become a stumbling block rather than a rock on which Jesus will build faith.

Jeremiah is another person who tries to resist being transformed by God. At the beginning of the Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah claims God called him to the role of prophet while he was still in his mother’s womb. Prophecy was Jerimiah’s destiny, but his suffering as a prophet makes him angry with God. Jeremiah claims God took advantage of him. He alleges God duped or seduced him into the painful role of serving as a prophet. Jeremiah wants to resist his prophetic call where he must speak God’s message, which many of his contemporaries found antagonistic. He wishes God would leave him alone and let him live without God as part of his life.

Jeremiah, however, finds it impossible not to be transformed by God. He ultimately surrenders to God because he concludes he can’t live without a relationship with God. Jeremiah finds it impossible to squelch the Word of God coming to his ears and mind. He must share God’s words despite opposition, ridicule, and suffering. Jeremiah finds trying to resist God’s call to speak prophecy is impossible. Jeremiah feels it is harder to live with the regret that comes from the cowardness of not proclaiming God’s word than the challenge of being faithful. No matter how hard he tries, Jeremiah cannot resist being transformed by God. 

Paul, too, urges the Roman Christian community to be open to transformation. In today’s short reading from the letter to the Romans, Paul wrote:

I urge you, brothers, and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your minds, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Paul encourages the community of Christians to shape the world and not be shaped by it. Paul encouraged them, as Jesus encouraged His Apostles to take up the cross. Taking up the cross doesn’t mean disciples have to desire to suffer bloody or even white martyrdom. Taking up the cross for disciples today means we are willing to be the servant of others. It is to die to self. This servanthood calls us to recognize all we possess materially and spiritually is God’s gift to us, and we must be willing to share it with others. Servanthood means we place our relationship with God at our life center and work with God to build the Kingdom here on earth. Servant disciples act mercifully towards others and work for right relationships among our brothers and sisters. This type of relationship with God will mean we will face persecution and ridicule from people who resist God’s love, but goodness and eternal life await those who do.

Our world is desperate for true servant disciples. It hungers for people who are genuine in their desire to sacrifice for others and make our world holier. If Christians of every denomination embraced servant discipleship, the Church would grow, spread, and flourish out to the peripheries of our world. There would not be a corner of this earth where Jesus’ name isn’t known and praised.

Discipleship- and the constant transformation and conversion it includes- is hard work. We are never completely there as long as there is life in us. It is a continuous struggle to put aside the competitive calculations that are stumbling blocks on our way to the new Jerusalem of Eternal Life. When Jesus Christ returns, he will look for people with a similar mindset as His. Hopefully, He will find all of us among the faithful.

As the physical structure of our parish church undergoes a transformation, I intend to use this time for a spiritual one here in the parish. Over the fall and winter, with the help of parishioners, I plan to take initiatives to strengthen our parish spiritually. I realize many of you here today are seasonal parishioners or summer visitors. Still, I hope we all will open ourselves to spiritual transformation and conversion over the next few months.

How do we learn to say yes to God and no to self? What do we need to do to help make the love of God prevail in the world? How do we begin the constant ascent to a more meaningful relationship with God? How can we be transformed like Jeremiah and feel compelled to share God’s Word in our world?

By deepening our prayer life and being faithful to the sacraments, we can begin to say yes to God. Yes, that takes time, and many of us already have packed schedules. We can’t envision finding time to nurture a relationship with God. Truthfully, if we can force ourselves to set aside even ten minutes in our day for prayer, our relationship with God and all our other relationships will improve. The grace of the sacraments will strengthen us to live transformed lives of service and love.

Shortly, we will begin the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the part of our Mass when the real presence of Jesus Christ will come to feed us with Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Whether we open our souls to the presence of God or not, God will enter into us to convert us with the power of God’s grace. My prayer today is that you will accept that power to change you and fill you with the desire to help Jesus build God’s Kingdom in our midst, and transform our world to the will of God.