Weary trying to hold it in

Sunday 30 August 2026

Lectio Divina:*

Jeremiah 20:7-9 Psalm 63(62) Romans 12:1-2 Matthew 16:21-27

(See also Mark 8:34-9:1 and Luke 9:23-27 and John 12:25-26)

Meditatio:

 “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name’, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." (Jeremiah 20:9)

Commentary:

There is a small irony in this Sunday’s reading. Last Sunday, we heard about the conferring of the keys on Peter, the rock on whom Christ builds his Church. This Sunday, immediately following that discourse, we hear Peter being called a stumbling block—a skandalon in Greek—ironically from the same Jesus who had just named him Petros, the rock.

Jesus does not mince his words: ‘Get behind me, Satan.’ Later in the Gospels we learn that Peter will deny the Lord three times, and yet be forgiven, restored and strengthened. His story is not one of perfection at once but of conversion.

Like Peter, we too can become stumbling blocks for others on life’s journey. By our attitudes, assumptions and ways of thinking, we can become instruments not of peace and unity but of discord, harm and alienation. Being a stumbling block is one thing; failing to recognise it and change is quite another. We can cling to self‑interest or to the approval of others while ignoring the demands of love. Many are deterred or scandalised because the light of Christ seems absent from our words, actions and manner of living.

To follow Jesus in the 21st century calls for radical rethinking. We must remain anchored to Scripture and to tradition where tradition is necessary and life‑giving. Yet the call to unity in a diverse and divided world requires embracing the freedom of the cross in the place where we have been planted. In this struggle we have much in common with the prophet Jeremiah. Called to speak God's word, he found himself mocked, opposed and misunderstood; yet he discovered that the call of God could not be silenced. As he declares (20:9):

I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name’, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in and I cannot.

Like Jeremiah, Peter must learn that discipleship is not about avoiding suffering but about fidelity to God's purposes. Like Jeremiah, we too may find that following Christ leads us beyond comfort and respectability. Yet the Gospel continues to burn within us, calling us to witness even when doing so is costly.

This is where today’s excerpt from Romans 12:1–2 becomes crucial. St Paul urges us:

present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul’s words illuminate today’s Gospel. To take up our cross is not to flee the world nor to despise our humanity. It is to offer our whole selves - mind, body, desires, wounds, hopes - as a living sacrifice. It is to allow Christ to reshape our thinking, our habits and our priorities so that we discern ‘what is good and acceptable and perfect’. This is the true freedom of discipleship: not conformity to the world’s patterns, but transformation through grace.

There are distorted presentations of Christianity that reduce the journey either to relentless suffering or to effortless sweetness. Both miss the Paschal mystery. Both fail to see that the death‑and‑resurrection of Jesus is life‑changing and world‑changing. To carry our cross daily is to share in Christ’s life, death and resurrection. This is what Christian discipleship demands - nothing more and nothing less.

Self‑denial is not self‑erasure. It is the rediscovery of our true selves in relationship with Christ. In denying ourselves and following him, we walk the royal road to authentic human freedom.

This Gospel passage is echoed in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian pastor and martyr executed by the Nazi regime in 1945. In his poem Stations on the Road to Freedom, he traces the path of discipline, action, suffering and finally death - each step revealing a deeper freedom. His witness reminds us that the cross is not a symbol of defeat but of liberation and that true freedom is found only in Christ.

Some extras:

Collect of the Word for this Sunday (Church of Ireland)

 O God, whose Son has shown the way of the cross to be the way of life: transform and renew our minds that we may not be conformed to this world but may offer ourselves wholly to you as a living sacrifice through Jesus Christ our Saviour; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Post-Communion prayer (Roman Catholic missal of 1970)

Lord, you renew us at your table with the bread of life. May this food strengthen us in love and help us to serve you in each other. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.

Private prayer after Holy Communion

(from The Family Missal and Prayer Book of the Church of the Holy Spirit, Ballyroan, Dublin, 1976)

Lord Jesus, my Redeemer, you suffered grievously; you were rejected by the leaders of your own people; you were put to death and raised up on the third day. Your followers must tread the same path. ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of me, let them renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me’. Today, some of your followers must renounce their wealth, reputation, friends, even their life. Some are in prison. Others bear the unspectacular burden of their family, of the effort of their work, of the pain of illness or failure. Apart from such self-giving we can either follow you or find fulfilment. Guest of my soul, let me recognise my cross and take it up today. Let me recall your words, ‘What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his soul.’