Pentecost XV

Pentecost XV Proper 19 (Holy Cross Sunday)
What does it profit?

The defining question that forms the human soul is: what’s in it for me?
We all learn from an early age how to exercise the mental calculus to determine the cost and the benefit of our choices. We all learn from an early age how to use our emotions to manage the emotions of our parents, siblings and friends. We all learn this because we are born with a self will that holds the mistaken belief that there is a separate sovereign "me" that I must defend and express.

The Bible teaches that God created us, all of us and each of us, to be a unique manifestation of the infinite and eternal love that defines God’s nature. As God Himself in One God yet three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so He created humanity to express the unity of love through the diversity of individual identity.

The question God placed before us to accept as our own defining path in life is: how may I help?
Humanity chose a different path. It chose separation. It chose disunity. In that choice people are lost. We not only lose our relationship with eternal love, we lose the uniqueness of our individual identity in divine love. There is a certain weary sameness to souls who live from the place of separation and approach life from the question: what’s in it for me? Eventually that question morphs and becomes" is that all there is?

Jesus confronts this question in Peter. He asks Peter a very simple and straightforward question: who do people say that I am? Peter answers with all of the improbable speculations that the people were discussing.

Then Jesus asks, what about you Peter? Who am I to you? Peter answers with the right words, you are the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one of God. But, Peter clearly does not understand the inward and spiritual grace that gives meaning to the words.

We hear this when Jesus reveals that the Plan of Salvation is not the sword but the cross. Peter is horrified when he hears Jesus’ words. Peter actually rebukes Jesus. Peter says: no way. God forbid. This will never happen.

Peter’s reaction comes from the place of fear. He had placed all of his hopes on Jesus being the Messiah. He had given up his business and his family to follow Jesus. Peter assumed he would follow Jesus into battle. Peter expected to be rewarded with wealth and power. Peter was no different than any one else in his generation who expected the Messiah to be the final solution to the gentile problem.

We hear in Peter’s rebuke the question and the demand that formed his soul. The question is: what’s in it for me? The demand is: do it my way. Do it my way Jesus. Be the Messianic conqueror I want you to be.

When Jesus reveals the Plan of Salvation Peter reacts with fear. He does not yet trust Jesus. He does not yet have the faith that says: not my will but Thy will be done. Peter is still lost in the path of separation, fear, self will and pride.

Jesus calls his students and the crowds together and clarifies what it means to follow him. Take up your cross. He might just have easily said: stand in front of the firing squad. Ascend the gallows. Strap yourself into the electric chair. Offer your arm to the executioner to insert the lethal injection.

If it sounds shocking it is. It was meant to be shocking. We have a tendency to hear his words as an invitation to endure frustration. We say things like, my spouse doesn’t understand me- it is just my cross to bear. I never had the educational opportunities other people had- it is just my cross to bear.

The cross is a method of execution. It is not an inconvenience we are called to endure. Jesus clarifies this for our generation when he states what is obvious to his generation: those who seek to save their lives will lose them. Those who lose their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News I proclaim, it is they who will save their lives.

St. Paul says it well when he declares: I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live.
Those who seek to save their lives are those who are lost in the false self, the separated self, the fearful self. They are those who constantly ask: what’s in it for me? They are those who constantly demand: "do it my way".

For the people of Jesus’ generation this was the way of the sword. It was the way of conquest. The way of conquest is the way of perpetual war. It is the way of action and reaction. It is the way of aggression, submission and withdrawal. It is the erosion of the soul in the self deceit of the will to power. It is the way to eternal damnation. It is the way Satan sets before us in so many alluring temptations. It is the way Jesus came to deliver us from.

Jesus offers us a different way. It is the way of love and holiness. It is the way of surrender to divine love by grace through faith. It is the way of the cross. It is the key to understanding Jesus ‘ words: I am the way. No one can come to the Father expect by me.

Jesus is the way because Jesus is the one who willingly embraced the cross. On the cross Jesus not only surrendered to the will of God, he embraced human separation. He took all of our sins upon himself. He took all of the murder, and torture and theft and deceit, the pain and the suffering we inflict on each other and on ourselves. He took it all and it killed him as he knew it would.

When Jesus died on the cross he confirmed for all to see that the way of the cross is the way of death. When Jesus rose from the dead he defined the way of the cross as the way of life. Jesus is the way to reunification with God the Father. Jesus is the way of transformation in God the Holy Spirit.

All other ways people propose proceed from the sin nature of separation. All other ways ask: what’s in it for me? All other ways demand: do it my way. All other ways perpetuate separation.
The Way of the Cross is the way of the total immersion of the soul into the eternal love of God. That love has no beginning and it has no end. It is eternal. The soul that embraces Jesus as the Way finds the life it seeks. The soul that embraces Jesus as the Way is found by the life it once abandoned.

What dies on the cross with Jesus is the false self, the lost self, the separated self. What rises with Jesus is the true self, the soul that is a unique manifestation of the infinite and eternal love of God.

The Bible says: there is way that appears to be right. That was the way Peter wanted for Jesus, for Israel, for himself. It seemed perfectly rational and practical. But it was and continues to be wrong, deadly wrong.

There is only one way that leads to life. That is God’s way. That is the Way of the Cross, the Way of Jesus Christ. In that way we surrender self will, fear and pride. In that way God transforms separation to reunification. In that way God transforms the disintegration of our souls into a new life of transformation.

It begins when we say with Jesus, Heavenly Father not my will but Thy will be done. It begins when by grace through faith we receive reunification with God the Father through God the Son. It continues in every choice we make to surrender fear, self will and pride to the Way of the Cross, the Way of Jesus Christ, the Way of eternal love.

The Holy Spirit will lead you in the Way. The Holy Spirit even now offers you insight into the next step in the Way.

For some- it is a choice to spend more time in prayer.
For some- it is a choice to memorize scripture.
For some- it is the opportunity to help some one in need.
For all- it is the weekly invitation to meet Jesus Christ where he offers himself to be found: at the altar, in the blessed sacrament of his body and blood, in the total immersion of the soul in the steadfast holy love of the Eternal Trinity.

Jesus speaks to us this morning in the words of Holy Scripture and asks: what are you trading away for grace? What profit do you find in the substitutes the world offers you for eternal love? What profit do you value so highly that you stay away from the place where Jesus waits to be found?

What would it profit you to become the best soccer player, the most popular student, the richest and the most powerful person in the world if the cost is your own soul?

The question is not rhetorical. It is real. It is Jesus asking us and pleading with us: what are you doing with your life? What do you value? Where are your priorities? What does it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?