The Cross as the Way to Heaven

Scripture Readings
First Jeremiah 20:7-9
Second Romans 12:1-2
Gospel Matthew 16:21-27

Prepared by: Fr. James Cuddy, O.P.

1. Subject Matter
• The Galilean preaching ministry of our Lord has come to an end. The long journey to
Jerusalem and to the Cross has begun.
• Christ lays out the paradoxical course of discipleship: true life through the laying down of
one’s life.

2. Exegetical Notes
• Jeremiah: The prophet complains that he has been tricked and bullied by God. He “has been
sent ‘to root up and to tear down, to build and to plant’ (1:10); until now, his message
corresponded only with the first part of the program. Therefore, he had to face constant
persecutions. He had been deceived, for if he could have built and planted, the situation
would have been different” (JBC). Nevertheless, the God’s word is a consuming fire and he
has no choice but proclaim it.
• Romans: The act of offering oneself carries with it a sacrificial connotation, but unlike the
sacrifice of animals to gods who cannot save, the offering of oneself to God brings life and
freedom to man.
• Matthew: The beginning part of the pericope is rife with stumbling blocks (skandalon); the
suffering messiahship of Jesus scandalizes the disciples, while Peter’s rebuke threatens to
cause the Lord to stumble. The latter part of the passage describes the demands of
discipleship. Again, we are brought face to face with one of the great paradoxes of the faith:
“The preservation of the person is achieved only by yielding to the person of Jesus. One who
saves his life may lose himself” (JBC). Further, “the true and lasting value of the person
transcends the conditions of the present existence. The whole world is not a sufficient
recompense for the surrender of the self to prolong one’s earthly life” (Ibid).

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

• 2584 “In their ‘one to one’ encounters with God, the prophets draw light and strength for their
mission. Their prayer is not flight from this unfaithful world, but rather attentiveness to The
Word of God. At times their prayer is an argument or a complaint, but it is always an
intercession that awaits and prepares for the intervention of the Savior God, the Lord of
history.”
• 2031 “We present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, within the
Body of Christ that we form and in communion with the offering of his Eucharist. In the liturgy
and the celebration of the sacraments, prayer and teaching are conjoined with the grace of
Christ to enlighten and nourish Christian activity. As does the whole of the Christian life, the
moral life finds its source and summit in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
• 540 “Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the
way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him.”
• 607 “The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus’ whole life, for
his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation.”

4. Patristic Commentary
• St. Hilary: “The Lord, knowing the suggestion of the craft of the devil, says to Peter, Get you
behind me; that is, that he should follow the example of His passion.”
• St. John Chrysostom: “For what wonder is it that this should befall Peter, who had never
received a revelation concerning these things? For that you may learn that that confession
which he made concerning Christ was not spoken of himself, observe how in these things
which had not been revealed to him, he is at a loss.”
• St. John Chrysostom: “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If any man will to come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me’; as much as to say, ‘You say to me, Be it
far from you; but I say to you, that not only is it harmful for you to hinder Me from My Passion,
but yourself will not be able to be saved unless you suffer and die, and renounce your life
always.’”
• St. Gregory the Great: “There are two ways of taking our cross: when the body is afflicted
by abstinence, or when the heart is pained by compassion for another. Forasmuch as our
very virtues are beset with faults, we must declare that vainglory sometimes attends
abstinence of flesh, for the emaciated body and pale countenance betray this high virtue to
the praise of the world. Compassion again is sometimes attended by a false affection which
is hereby led to be consenting to sin. To shut out these, He adds, ‘Follow me.’”
• St. Augustine: “Our Lord’s command seems hard and heavy, that anyone who wants to
follow him must renounce himself. But no command is hard and heavy when it comes from
one who helps to carry it out.”

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars

• St. Nicholas von Flüe: “My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me
from you. My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you. My Lord
and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.
• St. Rose of Lima: “Apart from the Cross, there is no ladder by which we may get to heaven.”
• Gaudium et Spes (22): The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the
mystery of man take on light. . . . For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in
some fashion with every man. . . . By suffering for us He not only provided us with an
example for our imitation, He blazed a trail, and if we follow it, life and death are made holy
and take on a new meaning. . . . Such is the mystery of man, and it is a great one, as seen
by believers in the light of Christian revelation. Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of
sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they overwhelm us.”

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI

• “We know that through all the centuries, right up to the present, Christians – while in
possession of the right confession – need the Lord to teach every generation anew that his
way is not the way of earthly power and glory, but the way of the Cross.”
• “Peter wanted as Messiah a ‘divine man’ who would fulfill the expectations of the people by
imposing his power upon them all: we would also like the Lord to impose his power and
transform the world instantly. Jesus presented himself as a ‘human God’, the Servant of God,
who turned the crowd's expectations upside-down by taking a path of humility and suffering.
This is the great alternative that we must learn over and over again: to give priority to our
own expectations, rejecting Jesus, or to accept Jesus in the truth of his mission and set aside
all too human expectations.”
• “Peter, impulsive as he was, did not hesitate to take Jesus aside and rebuke him. Jesus'
answer demolished all his false expectations, calling him to conversion and to follow him:
‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men.’ It is not for you to
show me the way; I take my own way and you should follow me.”
• “This is the demanding rule of the following of Christ: one must be able, if necessary, to give
up the whole world to save the true values, to save the soul, to save the presence of God in
the world. And though with difficulty, Peter accepted the invitation and continued his life in the
Master's footsteps.”

7. Other Considerations
• The Opening Prayer of this week’s liturgy asks the Lord to “increase our faith.” As the
profession of Jesus as the Christ does not come from flesh and blood but from our heavenly
Father (cf. last week’s Gospel), so too do we need the Lord to make it possible for us to
accept that the road to salvation is the Way of the Cross.

Recommended Resources
Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth (New York: Doubleday, 2007), pp. 287-305.
Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press,
2007)
Raymond Brown, Joseph Fitzmyer, Roland Murphy, eds. The New Jerusalem Biblical
Commentary (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990).