Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Intention: For God’s blessing on our labors, that they may bring to us our daily bread and that they always be done humbly, honestly, and justly.
Today’s Gospel | Matthew 16:21-27
Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”
From the Second Meditation for the Time of Retreat | Saint John Baptist de La Salle
Is your main care, then, to instruct your disciples in the maxims of the holy Gospel and the practice of the Christian virtues? Have you anything more at heart than helping them find their happiness in these practices? Do you regard the good you are trying to achieve in them as the foundation of all the good they will practice for the rest of their life? The habits of virtue that are cultivated during youth encounter less resistance in corrupt nature and form the deepest roots in the hearts of those in whom they have been formed.
Prayer
Eternal Father, your Son called us to see each other and our world through your eyes. When we allow humility and compassion to be replaced by pride and selfishness, we blind ourselves to your Kingdom. Help us to turn away from sinfulness, to walk in your ways, and to live lives of graciousness and service. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.