22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mt 16:21-27
September 3, 2023

St. Paul urges: Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may discern what is the will of God.

This very sage advice is especially relevant today.

We are literally being bombarded by a variety of influences that grab our attention and cause us to lose sight of what God has planned for us.

For example, Time Magazine published an article on January 12, 2023, describing some extraordinary research being done at the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School.

Briefly, very credible medical researchers…THIS IS LEGITIMATE SCIENTIFIC DATA…NOT FAKE NEWS…CREDIBLE RESEARCHERS claim to have made enormous progress in developing the means to reverse the aging process. In terms of treatments and therapies, it is hoped that this research will lead to such things as restoring vision, healing diseased hearts, and renewing deteriorated joints.

I, FOR ONE, WOULD LOVE TO GET RID OF THIS CANE…AND THESE TRIFOCALS…and be able to walk down the street without huffing and puffing. Who wouldn’t? BUT ultimately, the objective OF THIS VERY CREDIBLE RESEARCH is to offer the possibility of extending a person’s earthly life indefinitely.

If this research can bring about HEALING and reduce suffering, then it is undeniably a very good thing. However, our Scripture passages this week raise the question as to whether the objective of unlimited earthly life is actually good news for ANYONE? Is this part of God’s will?

Our Gospel reports how Jesus began preparing His followers for His own suffering and death. Of course, out of love and concern, Peter resisted the idea that The Lord must die.

Jesus responds: Whoever wishes to save their life will lose it.

This would suggest that those who hope to defeat aging, and, ultimately, death, are dangerously short-sighted.

Jeremiah inspires an intriguing image of the inner workings of the human body. We are filled with The Eternal Word of The Lord. The cells of the human heart burn with this spark of the Divine, leaving us with a feeling of restlessness and a longing for something more than we can ever hope to find in this world.

God’s presence is imprisoned within each cell of our bones, eager to energize our movements and set us on a path that leads out of time and into eternal life. The human body simply cannot contain this powerful force. That part of us that is eternal cannot be “held in.” Eventually, that which is infinite must burst forth from the finite and fragile vessel that contains it.

It is certainly true that, moved with compassion, Jesus performed countless miraculous healings, even raising the dead. And so, advances in medicine that heal and relieve suffering are very much consistent with God’s will as revealed by Jesus Christ.

But The Lord’s mission in this world was to do the will of The Father. And, ultimately, the will of The Father was that The Son should sacrifice His life in this world so that all who believe might enjoy eternal life in The Kingdom.

So then, the takeaway from our Readings certainly seems to point to the need to resist the ambitions of the present era, CERTAINLY CONCERNING THE AMBITION TO REVERSE THE NATURAL AGING PROCESS…even to the point of extending life in this world indefinitely.

Rather, Jesus is encouraging us to “reboot” our trust in The Creator, Whose will it is that we do enjoy eternal life, not just in this world, but in The Kingdom of Heaven!

Now, you might well be thinking that this is the stuff of a science fiction movie that does not belong in a reflection on Sacred Scripture. To that, I would reply that this is the “stuff of the present age.”

We must not allow this “stuff” to transform our minds and our lives. Rather, we must continue to look to the Gospel for guidance, so that we can properly discern God’s will.

And it is God’s will that we live forever…but not in this world!