Turning Our Crosses into Crucifixes: How Christ Transforms Suffering

 22 Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A

Suffering is a reality that none of us can completely avoid, but Christ shows us that it does not have to remain meaningless or destructive. When suffering is joined to love and to the presence of Jesus, it can be transformed and begin to bear life. We are invited to name the crosses we carry and turn them into crucifixes by allowing Christ to enter them and walk with us.

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If you ever look at an information sheet or display about different religions, whether in an airport or some other public place, each religion usually has a symbol associated with it. For the Jewish tradition, we often see the Star of David. For Christianity, the symbol is usually the cross. Today’s Gospel speaks about the cross, which has become this great symbol and theme of our faith. Yet when we look back to the earliest centuries of the Church, the cross was not actually the most common Christian symbol.

When I was a kid, I had the opportunity to visit the catacombs in Rome. Much of the soil around Rome is volcanic, so it can be dug through relatively easily, and once exposed to the air it hardens almost like concrete. Christians buried their dead in these underground tombs and also gathered there to pray, especially during times of persecution. What fascinated me was seeing the different symbols carved into the stone or placed on marble plaques. You see the fish everywhere. Fish in Greek is ichthys, and the letters of that word could be used as an acronym for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. It became something like a secret Christian symbol. You also find bread or sheaves of wheat, symbols connected with the Eucharist.

But one symbol you generally do not find in those early catacombs is the cross. The reason is understandable. The catacombs were used during the centuries before Constantine, when Christians were still being persecuted and crucifixion was still a real form of execution. Early Christians knew very vividly what a cross meant. It was an instrument of torture, suffering, and death. They understood clearly that the cross represented suffering, especially suffering that we do not choose and cannot simply escape.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus confronts this mystery of suffering. He tells us that if we want to follow him and be his disciples, we must take up our cross and follow him. The mystery of suffering and pain is universal, and every philosophy and religion has tried in some way to answer the question of what we are supposed to do with it.

At the time of Jesus, one important philosophical movement was hedonism. As a philosophy, hedonism taught that pleasure is good, pain is bad, and the purpose of life is therefore to seek pleasure and avoid suffering as much as possible. Another important movement was Stoicism. The Stoics recognized that avoiding all suffering is unrealistic. Everyone suffers. What matters is how we deal with it. Their response was to accept the suffering that cannot be changed and endure it with discipline. There is something admirable in that, but suffering is still treated basically as a necessary evil. It is endured, but it does not become something fruitful.

In the Old Testament, the Scriptures of Jesus, we also find different attempts to understand suffering. Some texts connect suffering with punishment for sin. Yet other parts of Scripture challenge that idea. The Book of Job gives us the story of a righteous man who has done nothing deserving of his suffering, and yet he suffers tremendously. Scripture itself therefore recognizes that suffering cannot simply be explained as punishment for bad behaviour.

Jesus gives us something different. The Gospel today comes immediately after the passage we heard last week, and the change is almost like whiplash. Peter had been put on a pedestal. He recognized Jesus as the Christ, and Jesus told him, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” He was given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. But now Peter has completely misunderstood what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah. Jesus explains that suffering will be part of his own mission. He will suffer and die. He will take upon himself the violence and evil of the world and transform it.

Jesus then teaches us that if we want to be his disciples, we cannot simply leave our crosses behind, ignore our suffering, or pretend that it is not there. When we accept our suffering with him, it can be transformed. Suffering by itself can be deeply harmful. If suffering is combined with isolation, bitterness, or resentment, it can grow inside us and spoil our hearts. But when suffering is joined to love, when it is carried with Christ and within community, it can become something different. It remains painful, but it can become life-giving.

We can think of the analogy of pruning. A knife can obviously cause harm. Yet in the hands of someone who knows how to prune a tree or plant properly, that same sharp instrument can help the plant grow more strongly and bear more fruit. Something similar can happen with suffering in our lives. When we carry it with Jesus, when we allow him to walk beside us, and when we endure it out of love for God and for others, suffering can begin to bear fruit.

All of us carry suffering of one kind or another, and Jesus does not ask us to ignore it. During this Mass, it might be important simply to name that suffering in our own hearts. What is the cross that I am carrying today? It might be a health problem that we are facing, or the illness of a family member or friend. It may be a challenge at work, difficulty finding employment, or the stress of going through an immigration process. It might be pain within a relationship that is breaking down even though we are trying hard to repair it. We all carry crosses, and Jesus invites us first to recognize that they are there.

Then we can ask a second question: what love can I bring into this suffering? If the cross involves work or financial difficulties, perhaps we continue out of love for our family or community. If we are struggling to heal a damaged relationship, perhaps the difficult work we do is offered out of love for the other person. Christ teaches us that suffering cannot always be avoided, but it can be joined to love, and when that happens it can be transformed.

I remember once hearing a priest say that we need to turn our crosses into crucifixes. I was struck by that expression. A cross by itself is simply two pieces of wood. Historically, it was an instrument of torture and execution. But a crucifix has Jesus upon it. To turn our cross into a crucifix means that we invite Jesus into our suffering. We allow him to be there with us, to walk with us, and to help us carry what we cannot carry alone. When Christ enters our suffering, it can become joined to his love and begin to bear life.

Today, then, let us recognize the crosses we carry and surrender them to the Lord. Let us ask for the grace not simply to endure them alone, but to bring Christ into them. May he help us transform our crosses into crucifixes, so that even our suffering, when joined to love, can become a source of life for us and for those around us.

Peter the Rock - Faithful even in failure

 21 Sunday in OT

Peter is called the rock because of his strong faith, but his story also shows that he was capable of misunderstanding Jesus and failing badly. What made Peter a foundation for others was not perfection, but his willingness to return to Christ, continue following him, and carry out the mission he had been given. Like Peter, each of us is called through baptism to use our gifts and persevere in helping to build up the Church.

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This is an important Gospel for us here at St. Peter’s Parish because our patron, St. Peter, is featured so heavily in the story. As most of you know by now, I was raised in this parish and baptized here, so St. Peter has always held a special place for me. In particular, this story, this interaction that Jesus has with Peter, has always stood out to me. At the end of the exchange, Jesus gives Peter this name: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” The name is a play on his Aramaic name, Kephas, which means rock, but it is also clearly symbolic. Peter is being called the rock, and I would like to reflect a little on what that might mean for Peter and also for us.

First and foremost, Peter is called a rock because of his strong faith. He becomes, as it were, a source of strength and unity among the followers of Jesus. In the Gospel today, Jesus is in Caesarea Philippi, which is in the north of the Holy Land. It was an interesting city because it was largely Gentile, and it was also a famous pilgrimage site connected with the worship of the god Pan. Pan is often shown with the lower body of a goat and carrying a flute, and he was associated with the wild. So it is there, in the shadow of a place where people worshipped other gods, that Jesus asks his disciples this important question: “Who do you say that I am?” He hears different responses. Some say John the Baptist, some say one of the prophets, but Peter is the one who has the faith to declare that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Even though Jesus’ mission is still unfolding, Peter has this insight. He understands that Jesus is not simply another prophet or religious teacher, but that he is the long-awaited Messiah and the Son of God. Because of this faith, Jesus calls Peter the rock.

More than this, Jesus entrusts Peter with a particular role by giving him the keys. I remember those keys very clearly from growing up here at St. Peter’s. Back in the olden days, before the addition of the present offices, there was a grassy space out along Fourth Street. When I would altar serve, we would walk around the back of the church, and there was a large statue there of St. Peter holding the keys. You can still see that statue today, just outside our office space. So from when I was young, I always associated Peter with these keys. To understand what they mean, we need to look at the first reading. There we hear about Eliakim, who is not the king but is given a key. The key symbolizes authority that has been delegated to him by the king. He is there as a steward, someone who stands in the place of the king and exercises authority on his behalf. This helps us understand the role given to Peter. By receiving the keys, Peter is entrusted with a particular authority from Jesus. Jesus, of course, remains the true foundation of the Church, but he gives different gifts and different missions to his followers, and Peter is given this particular mission of serving the unity and stability of the Church. As Catholics, we believe that this ministry continues in the successors of Peter, the popes. This is why we speak of the pope as the Vicar of Christ. He does not replace Jesus, but he is entrusted with a particular responsibility to represent Christ and to serve the Church.

So Peter is a rock because of his strong faith, but there is another side to Peter’s personality, and another way we could perhaps call him a rock. I want to be polite here, of course, since we are in church, but sometimes Peter can also be a bit of a rock because he is a little dense, a little slow to understand. We see this immediately after the Gospel passage we have just heard. If you were to open your Bible and read only a few verses further, Jesus begins to explain what being the Messiah will actually mean. He says that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and rise again. Peter, who has just been called the rock and given the keys, takes Jesus aside and basically says, “No, no, Jesus. There must be some misunderstanding. This cannot happen to you.” Peter understands that Jesus is the Messiah, but he does not yet understand what kind of Messiah he is. He cannot yet accept that Jesus will be a suffering Messiah. Jesus responds very strongly and says, “Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me.” So within only a few verses, Peter goes from being the rock on which Jesus will build his Church to being called a stumbling block.

We see this pattern throughout Peter’s life, and as the years advance in my own life, this is actually a part of Peter that I have come to appreciate more and more. Peter makes mistakes time and time again, but he keeps following Jesus. He misunderstands what Jesus is saying. He says the wrong thing. Later, during the Passion, he will deny three times that he even knows Jesus. Jesus had warned him that before the rooster crowed, Peter would deny him three times. This moment became so closely associated with Peter that, especially in parts of Europe, you can still see roosters on top of church towers and weather vanes. The rooster can have several meanings, but one of them is this reminder of Peter’s denial. The Church does not try to gloss over Peter’s failure. It is right there in the Gospel. Peter had great strengths, but he also had very real weaknesses. He fell badly, but the important thing is that he continued. He returned to Christ, he kept following him, and he continued to carry out the mission that Jesus had entrusted to him.

This gives us a third way of thinking about Peter as a rock. Because Peter continued to follow Jesus, even after his failures, he became a kind of foundation stone for others. Through his faith, his preaching, his leadership, and ultimately his martyrdom, Peter helped to build up the early Church and to lay a foundation for those who would come after him. We see this represented in a very physical and beautiful way at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The first basilica there was built by Constantine in the fourth century over the place that Christians had long venerated as the burial place of Peter. The tradition was always that Peter’s tomb lay beneath the high altar, but for centuries the burial place itself was not visible. Then, beginning in 1939, archaeological excavations were carried out beneath the basilica. The excavators discovered an ancient Roman necropolis and, directly beneath the high altar, the area that early Christians had venerated as Peter’s tomb. There is something very moving about that. St. Peter’s Basilica is, of course, a church dedicated ultimately to the worship of Jesus Christ. Christ remains the centre. Yet beneath the basilica lies the burial place of this disciple who followed Jesus. Peter is literally beneath the church. People walk above him, and in a beautiful way that is exactly what his life became. He played his part. He used the gifts Christ had given him, and through his faith, his failures, and his perseverance, he helped build up the Church so that others could come after him.

Peter, then, is a rock in several ways. He is a rock because of his strong faith. He is also a very human rock, sometimes slow to understand and capable of serious failure. But perhaps most importantly for us, he is a rock because he never stopped returning to Christ. He continued to follow Jesus, and because he did, his life became a foundation on which others could build. The same is true for us. St. Paul frequently describes the Church as a building, and Christians as the living stones from which that building is constructed. You can imagine any wall made from stone. When one stone is missing, something is lacking. The wall is not as strong or as complete as it could be. Each one of us has a role to play in building up the Church, the Body of Christ, and our own community here at St. Peter’s.

We do not have to be perfect in order to do that. Peter certainly was not. We will misunderstand things, we will make mistakes, and we will fall at times, but like Peter, we are called to return to Christ, to continue following him, and to keep using whatever gifts God has given us. Today, then, let us pray for the intercession of our patron, St. Peter, the rock upon whom Christ chose to build his Church. Let us also remember that through our baptism we too are called to play our part in building up the Church. May St. Peter help us to have the faith to keep following Christ, the humility to return when we fall, and the courage to use our gifts so that we too can help build up the Church for those who will come after us.

Why Did Jesus Call the Canaanite Woman a Dog?

 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the Gospel encounter with the Canaanite woman, Jesus' words can initially sound harsh and even shocking. By looking at the wider context, we discover a passage about God's salvation opening to the Gentiles and a woman whose remarkable faith refuses to give up when obstacles are placed before her. Her perseverance becomes a model for us when prayer seems unanswered, personal growth feels slow, or God's plans unfold according to a timetable very different from our own.

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Today's Gospel is a challenging one because, if you're like me, after hearing it you might think to yourself, “Jesus didn't really call that woman a dog, did he?” But when we look carefully at the passage, it seems that he did. This woman, who is a Canaanite, comes to Jesus because her daughter needs healing. She asks him for this grace, this assistance, this help, and Jesus responds by saying, “It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.” At first glance, it really does seem as though Jesus is calling this woman a dog. So what exactly is going on here?

There are a few possibilities we might consider. One possibility, at least hypothetically, is that Jesus is simply being rude to this woman or sharing in the prejudices of his time. Some Jewish people, though certainly not all, looked down on Gentiles, people who were not Jewish. Unfortunately, as happens in every time and place, people can fall into the temptation of looking down on those who are different from them or who do not belong to their community. One of the insulting terms sometimes used for Gentiles was “dogs.” This Canaanite woman from the region of Tyre and Sidon is certainly not Jewish, so the language Jesus uses has a cultural background. Still, it would be very difficult to conclude that Jesus is simply sharing in this prejudice, especially when we look carefully at the wider context of the passage.

Another possibility is that Jesus is learning something new about his mission from this woman. Certainly, this Canaanite woman is praised for her faith, and she is presented as a model of faith and perseverance for all of us. Yet the context suggests that Jesus already knows what he is doing. His encounter with her does not happen accidentally. Jesus has deliberately travelled into Gentile territory, and this interaction forms part of a larger movement in his ministry.

To understand this, we need to look at what happens immediately before this passage in the Gospel of Matthew. Just before Jesus meets the Canaanite woman, he has a debate with the Jewish religious leaders about clean and unclean foods. According to Jewish religious practice, certain foods were considered unclean, and eating them could make a person ritually unclean. Jesus teaches something quite radical. He says that what enters a person from outside does not make that person unclean. Rather, what truly makes us unclean is what comes from within, from the human heart: our evil actions, our malice, our anger, our jealousy, and the other sins that separate us from God and from one another.

Immediately after this teaching, Jesus makes the decision to travel into the region of Tyre and Sidon, which is Gentile territory. That movement is very important. Jesus has just challenged the idea that certain foods can make a person unclean, and now he goes into a place inhabited by people whom some Jewish people might also have considered unclean. In a sense, after declaring that foods should not simply be divided into clean and unclean, Jesus now shows that people cannot simply be divided into clean and unclean either. There are no people who stand outside the love and embrace of God.

Jesus is showing that he is not simply the Messiah for the people of Israel. God's salvation is intended for the Gentiles as well. In doing this, Jesus is fulfilling the hope expressed by the prophet Isaiah, who looked forward to a time when people from all the nations would come to worship the God of Israel and would become part of God's family. The encounter with this Canaanite woman becomes one concrete sign that this promise is beginning to be fulfilled.

But even after recognizing all of this, we still have to deal with the difficult question: why does Jesus speak to this woman about dogs? One thing that is important to remember whenever we read Scripture is that we cannot hear Jesus' tone of voice. We have the words, but we do not have the tone, the facial expression, or the gestures that accompanied them. There is a great difference between saying harshly, “It is not right to take the children's food and give it to the dogs,” and saying the same words in a way that invites a response, almost as though Jesus were saying, “It is not right to take the children's food and give it to the dogs, is it?”

It seems that Jesus is doing with this woman something he does elsewhere in the Gospels. At times, when someone comes to Jesus seeking healing or some other grace, Jesus does not immediately give the person what they ask for. He puts an obstacle in front of them. He allows the encounter to become difficult so that something deeper can be drawn out of the person. Their faith, their trust, or their perseverance is given an opportunity to become visible, perhaps even to themselves.

There is an old story that illustrates this idea. A young man once wanted to join a monastery and become a monk. He travelled out into the wilderness where the monastery was located and knocked on the great front doors. A monk opened the door, and the young man explained that he wanted to join the community. The monk replied, “I'm sorry, you don't have what it takes. Please go away,” and then he shut the doors. The young man, however, did not leave. He remained outside the monastery all day. As evening began to fall, he knocked again. The monk opened the door and said, “What are you still doing here? I already told you that this life isn't for you. You should go home.” Once again, the doors were closed.

Still the young man persevered. He stayed outside the monastery throughout the night, and in the morning he knocked on the doors once again. This time, when the monk opened the door and heard once more that the young man wanted to become a monk, he embraced him and said, “Welcome, brother,” and brought him inside. Perhaps the monk's behaviour seems a little harsh, but the point of the story is that he wanted the young man to discover how deeply he truly desired this life. Was this just a passing idea? Was he perhaps running away from something else? Or did he really want to give his life to God in this particular way?

Something similar seems to be happening between Jesus and the Canaanite woman. Jesus places obstacles in front of her, but she continues forward. She does not allow herself to be discouraged, and her response to Jesus is remarkably clever. When Jesus says that it is not right to take the children's food and give it to the dogs, she replies that even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master's table.

The woman takes Jesus' image and reframes it. The insulting image of Gentiles as dogs would normally suggest wild dogs outside the household, but she speaks instead about household dogs, animals that live within the home and receive food from the table. In effect, she is saying, “Perhaps I am not one of the children of Israel, but surely there is still something at God's table for me.” Jesus recognizes the depth of her faith and praises her for it. She has trusted that God's mercy is large enough to include her, and she refuses to give up.

This encounter therefore becomes an important moment in Jesus' ministry. God's grace and salvation are not restricted to Israel. They are being offered to the nations as well, and this Canaanite woman becomes a sign of that widening mission. At the same time, she becomes a powerful example for all of us of the importance of perseverance. She continues to trust even when the path becomes difficult and even when, at first, it seems as though Jesus is not going to give her what she asks for.

We need that same perseverance in many areas of our lives. Sometimes we pray for something and nothing seems to happen. We pray for healing, for help in our family, for a change in some difficult situation, and the answer does not seem to come. Sometimes we are trying to overcome a bad habit or build a good one, but progress is painfully slow. Sometimes we are trying to repair a relationship that has been damaged, and despite our best efforts, we do not seem to be getting anywhere. In those moments, it is very easy to become discouraged and simply give up.

The Canaanite woman reminds us that perseverance itself can become a place in which God is working. When we persevere in prayer, God may be preparing our hearts to receive something greater than what we originally asked for, or perhaps to receive the answer in a different way than we expected. When we persevere in trying to overcome a weakness, God may be teaching us more deeply about his mercy and giving us greater compassion for other people who struggle. When we persevere in trying to repair a relationship, even if we cannot control the response of the other person, God can still use that perseverance to change us and make us more patient, humble, and loving.

God's work does not always happen according to our timeline. The Canaanite woman reminds us that Christ desires to give his healing, grace, and salvation to all, but the way in which that grace comes into our lives may require patience and perseverance. Sometimes the obstacle itself becomes part of the way God helps our faith to grow.

Let us ask, then, for the grace to persevere like this remarkable woman. When prayer seems unanswered, when growth seems slow, or when the path ahead becomes difficult, let us continue to trust that Christ is still present and still at work. Even when we cannot yet see what God is doing, we can trust that he is preparing our hearts and leading us toward something good.