Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. Make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we’re celebrating the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The opening prayer God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that by deepening our sense of reverence you may nurture in us what is good and by your watchful care keep safe what you have nurtured through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen. A reading from the Old Testament, the book of Jeremiah 27 you duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped. You are too strong for me, and you triumph all the day. I am the object of laughter. Everyone mocks me whenever I speak. I must cry out.

Violence and outrage is my message. The word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach all the day. I say to myself, I will not mention him. I will not speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones. I grow weary holding it in.

I cannot endure it. The Word of the Lord Response Oil Psalm My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God, O God. You are my God, whom I seek for you. My flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory.

To your kindness is a greater good than life. My lips shall glorify you. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. Thus will I bless you while I live. Lifting up my hands I will call upon your name, as with riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God, you are my help.

In the shadow of your wings I shout for joy. My soul clings fast to you. Your right hand upholds me. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. A reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, 12th chapter, first through the second verse.

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. 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, what is good and pleasing and perfect. The word of the Lord. May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call. Hallelujah.

The gospel for this Sunday is taken from Matthew 16:21, 27th verse. 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’re 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? Oh, 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. The Gospel of the Lord. Take the next few moments as we listen to this music to ponder the images and the thoughts that come to you as you listen to these readings. One of the great mysteries in salvation history is the role of evil. Why is it there? Why does God allow it?

It’s clear in the Old Testament, evil seemed to be much stronger than good in the sense that human beings were so susceptible to all of its lies and illusions. In the New Testament, we see Jesus dealing with it in an interesting way. He would recognize it in people, as if it reveals somehow it does exist. And when he would find it in someone, he would demand that they leave. But he never tried to destroy the evil that was in them. Even the time when the evil that Jesus discovered in someone begged the Lord not to destroy them.

And Jesus didn’t sent them into pigs, and then the pigs destroyed themselves. So evil is this destructive force in the world that we need to learn why it’s there and how do we deal with it and what is its most deadly trick that it plays on us? I want to go to Jeremiah because I think he’s so interesting as a human being who called to be a prophet. He accepted the role of prophecy when he was very, very young. And the words that God used when he called Jeremiah into his work, he said, I want you to do two things. I want you to break things down and destroy things and I want you to build things up.

I give you the power to destroy and the power to save. And the saving would be in Jeremiah’s mind is I love this idea of being one who can build people up. But then he realizes when he’s in the work, all he’s able to do is to tell people that they’re doing something awful and if they don’t stop, they’re going to be destroyed. And so his message to people is always, you’re in trouble, you’re going to be destroyed. And the response from that to Jeremiah was they want to destroy him. So he said, I’m constantly in this problem of I proclaim what you asked me to proclaim, but then I just, everybody hates me and everybody, I’m terrified that I’ll be destroyed by them.

But he said, inside of me there’s still this deep longing to help people, but I don’t seem to be able to do it. And I think that’s so beautiful an image of the work of dealing with evil. Because the Old Testament dealt with it in a way that was dangerous. And the Old Testament dealt with it just as Jeremiah experienced it. Condemnation, judgment against someone telling them that they are wicked and if they don’t change they’ll be destroyed was maybe necessary to stop people’s actions because some people would listen to that. But most people returned evil for evil.

And that is the key to understand how evil works. It was easier in the Old Testament, a place of judgment where it was a, you had a right to punish someone who punished you. But in the New Testament is radically different. And all through the Old Testament you see this violence everywhere. In the New Testament you see this God made man revealing something quite different. It’s called the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Heaven.

And it’s a place where there is no real violence against anyone, even though they may deserve it. So what Jesus is teaching is something radically different. And when we listen to Jesus saying to his disciples when he was close to the end of his life and he reveals the fact that he is going to, he’s revealing the fact that there’s a force against me and that force is going to win because that force is going to put me in a situation where I will be destroyed by it, or at least it wants to destroy me. So what would be the thing that Jesus wanted his disciples to understand in the most powerful way? He’s saying, look, I’m going to give in to this because that’s what the Father’s asking me to do. And even on the cross, Jesus said to, you know, cried out, you know, if I wanted to, I could call down legions of angels and destroy this entire, you know, gathering of people around me and all the people that put me here.

I can just destroy them, obliterate them. But he chose not to because he’s saying that there is one thing I want to teach. The last major thing I want to leave with you. Don’t try to use violence and destruction to establish my kingdom. My kingdom has nothing to do with that kind of power. I want you to just pay attention.

That when things happen that you cannot explain, you cannot understand, when a disease or a death of a loved one or a horrible experience with the culture you’re living in, whatever it is, don’t return evil for evil, because if you do, you will create a kingdom, not like my kingdom, but the kingdom of the world where people are in constant tension with each other. And when people don’t agree on the same thing, what they’ll do is they’ll turn and try to destroy the other. And we’re living in a world where that’s so clearly out there. People using other people, destroying other people, using the situation to make their. Their point, their. To make them more important than their opponent.

In other words, there’s a destruction in the hearts of people who are in conflict that eliminate any kind of communal work of working through a problem and solving it. They’re not interested in solving the problem. They want to destroy that which is keeping them from doing what they want to do. And so if you understand that evil longs for you to be like it, and if you can understand how when negative things happen to me, you often act in a really negative way, then you have an understanding of what I’m trying to say. Negativity creates negativity. Hate creates more hate.

That’s the danger of evil. And Jesus, when he says, I want you to understand that this is the will of God. It’s not, I’m not going to go into Satan’s world anymore. And it was hard for Jesus to make that decision. So the phrase that he uses to Peter and says, peter, you sound like Satan to me. You know, you want to destroy these people that are going to destroy me.

And that’s not my message. And so I’m leaving you with this really important realization. Evil is not going to go away, but you have a power greater than evil and the power that you have is in the realm of forgiveness, understanding, compassion, and not wanting to add anything to a world that is in the bondage of evil and self centeredness. I want you never to try to get revenge, but simply understanding. It’s the only way my kingdom can come. No more violence, no more destruction.

Acceptance and trusting in God to do the work that only he can do. And that’s to relieve the world of fear and shame and anger and blame. It’s a beautiful kingdom and we long for it. It’s that burning desire that was in Jeremiah. I want this world to be what I believe it is intended to be. A place where we grow and evolve and change.

Amen. The Closing Prayer Father, bless us with understanding and patience, kindness as we struggle with things that are different than we want them to be. Give us this spirit of acceptance so that we can live in a place of peace. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show.

Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a non profit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections in Institute Studios. Copyright 2023.