Homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Conditions And Cost Of Discipleship

Rev.  Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara

Homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, August 30, 2026

 A nun was explaining the Stations of the Cross to her class. When they reached the fourth Station, where Jesus, on the road to Calvary, meets his mother, the nun said that even though they could not speak to each other, mother and son communicated through their eyes. Then she asked the pupils, “What do you think they said to each other?” One child answered, “This is unfair.” Another said, “Why me?” Finally, a sickly little girl raised her tiny hand, stood up, and said: “Sister, the Blessed Mother told Jesus, ‘Keep on going, my Son!’” Why would a mother encourage her only Son, on the road to crucifixion, to keep on going? It’s because the mother understands the Christian principle of “no cross, no crown.”

Last week, we heard Saint Peter's great confession: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Because he accurately identifies who Jesus is, he is called Cephas, rock, the firm ground upon which the Church shall be built. Moments later— our Gospel for today (Matthew 16:21-27)— the same Peter is told that he is a Satan, a stumbling block, thinking not as God thinks but as men think. What is responsible for this startling reversal? Peter doesn’t get the cross. He doesn’t understand that the entire momentum of Jesus’ life is toward the cross. Something huge, historic, consequential, life-changing, earthshaking will happen on the cross. The greatest and fiercest spiritual warfare will take place there. Jesus comes as a Warrior ready to do battle with the source of all evil. And all sorts of forces are trying to keep him from it— some out of self-interest, some out of genuine concern. But what they have in common is that they just don’t get it; they just don’t get him. 

Jesus knows his mission clearly. He knows when tetelestai, “Paid in full,” will be accomplished. He tells his disciples that he must travel to Jerusalem, suffer greatly, and be killed, and on the third day he will rise. But they have no clue. Speaking for all the disciples, Peter says to Jesus, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” Even Jesus’ promise that he would be raised on the third day does not persuade Peter. At this point, Jesus turns to Peter and says, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Peter represents Christians, probably all of us who believe “Have faith in Jesus, and all will be okay.” Peter stands for all of us. We want the crown, but not the cross. Yet throughout his teaching and in his own life, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, teaches that the way of the cross is the way to the crown. Jesus understood the principle of “no cross, no crown” perfectly. In John 12:24, Jesus says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” Without the cross, there will be no crown. Without death, there will be no resurrection.

Sisters and brothers, Jesus does not promise us a crossless life. He does not promise us roses without thorns. His Gospel is like a coin. It has two sides: the cross and the crown. If we try to embrace one, the glorious one, and reject the other, the denial of oneself and the carrying of the cross, we falsify the Gospel. Preachers who preach a crossless “gospel” are not proclaiming the true Gospel of Christ. They are misleading people and driving so many into spiritual frustration, disillusionment, and religious indifference. How so? If I have been taught that faith in Jesus takes away the cross and misfortune, and at a certain point in my spiritual journey and life I begin to experience a storm that refuses to go away, and if I do not receive proper counseling rooted in the authentic faith of Christianity, I might end up believing that God has forgotten me or does not care. This new reality might cause me to relapse into faithlessness. This is the key problem with prosperity preaching. It takes away the redemptive cross and gives people false promises, false hope, and fake crowns.

Now, left to me, I do not want the cross at all. I know what the cross means, and it frightens me. But because I fully belong to Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith, I must listen to what he says. On the mountain of Transfiguration, the voice of God the Father was heard saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5). During his public ministry, this same Son of God proclaimed a teaching that must have been gut-wrenching for his first-century audience, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” What is going on here? Jesus is laying out the conditions for discipleship. It is not all about me; it is about him. Since God created us in his image and likeness, we have been creating ourselves in the image and likeness of lesser gods and created things. Therefore, true conversion—the metanoia that Jesus speaks about—is more than moral reform, although it includes it. It involves a complete shift in consciousness, a whole new way of looking at one’s life. God owns me, and I owe God my love and loyalty. Unless I crucify my ego and put Jesus first, I cannot be his disciple. I tell you, putting Jesus first will sometimes attract humiliation, rejection, ill-speaking, nakedness, and death. If you are unfazed by these, you are ready for discipleship. 

God bless you!