Sermon in a Bottle

22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – A.  “Get behind me, Satan!”

American culture teaches us in subliminal ways that we have complete control over our lives.  Simon Peter, a 1^st century Palestinian Jew, certainly felt the same.  When Jesus instructs his followers on the true path to eternal life – arrest, suffering, crucifixion, burial in Jerusalem – Peter resists.  But Rocky’s ways are not God’s ways.  The paschal mystery is the core of Jesus’s lived proclamation of the reign of God.  Whoever wishes to saves their life will lose it, in fidelity to Christ, in practical love of neighbor, in outreach to stranger.