Sunday's Homily Excerpt -September 19, 2021

Peter is not the only one who has to face this temptation—to put the things of man ahead of the things of God. This will be the temptation of every single person who has ever lived on the face of the earth. Jesus, therefore, summons not just His disciples (it says), but the crowd. “When He had called the people to Him” (that’s you and me), He said to them: “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore is ashamed of Me and of My words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Whoever desires to follow Jesus, must set aside the things of man—what he thinks, what he wants, how he thinks the world should be saved. God’s way is through the death of His only-begotten Son on the precious and life-giving tree of the Cross… for our salvation was won by the Cross. The Kingdom comes by the Cross. Our King was coronated with thorns. Our enemy, Death, was overcome by the King Himself dying. Our enemy, Satan, was destroyed in midst of darkness and the mockery of the Lord’s own falling. To see the battle, you’d never have guessed who the winner was. And Christ’s Victory was a victory that hid itself under an apparent defeat. And it still is. It still hides itself under crosses.- Fr. Thomas Frizelle