Homily – 22nd Sunday, 2026 – Fr Jeremiah Browne (National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies #southafrica #swaziland #Botswana #eswatini)
I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but sometimes, when I am using Google Maps I decided that I actually know better? It tells me to turn left, but I think I know a quicker route, a shortcut maybe, so I ignore the directions and go my own way. I know that the GPS will recalculate and adjust to the road that I have chosen, and that eventually I will get to my destination. Of course my choices don’t always get me to my destination as easily as I thought!
It seems to me that sometimes we treat God in much the same way. We say, “Lord, guide me,” but what we really want is God in the passenger seat. We want him beside us – but we still want our hands on the steering wheel. We choose the road. We decide the destination. We determine what we are prepared to give, forgive, change or sacrifice. Then we ask God to bless the journey.
But Christianity begins with something much more demanding. Jesus doesn’t say, “I will follow you!” He says, “Follow me!”
If I am following Jesus, then I can’t simply choose the route for myself and expect him to come along. Somehow, my relationship with him is meant to shape the choices that I make, the things I value, the people I forgive, the sacrifices I am prepared to make. In today’s Gospel (Matthew 16:21–27), Peter struggles with exactly that.
Remember last Sunday’s reading, where Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter got the answer spot on: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter knows who Jesus is. He believes in him and has chosen to follow him.
But then Jesus explains where his road will lead. He tells the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, where he will suffer, be put to death and be raised on the third day. Peter can’t accept that version of reality. He takes Jesus aside and begins to argue with him. Effectively, he is saying: “No, Lord. Not that way. There must be another way.” Peter wants to follow Jesus, but he also wants to decide where Jesus is going.
That is why Jesus’ response, “Get behind me, Satan!” is so significant. Peter has moved from following Jesus to trying to lead him. Jesus is putting him back where a disciple belongs: behind the Master. Jesus leads. We follow.
Of course, following is much easier when the road is one we would have chosen for ourselves anyway. The real test of faith comes when following God takes us along a road we would rather avoid.
Jeremiah knows something about that struggle. As we heard in the First Reading (Jeremiah 20:7–9), saying yes to God has taken him down a road he would never have chosen. His faithfulness has brought him ridicule, rejection and suffering. He’s had enough. He wants to walk away, but discovers that he can’t. God’s word has become like a fire burning within him – God’s word has hooked him, and there is no letting go.
Jeremiah is discovering what Peter still has to learn – that following God doesn’t mean travelling only the roads we would have chosen for ourselves. Sometimes it means choosing a path precisely because it is God’s way, even when it wouldn’t have been ours. That is why Jesus goes on to tell his disciples, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
We sometimes misunderstand those words. We speak about almost any difficulty as “a cross we have to bear.” Illness, bereavement, financial worries, difficult relationships – all of these can involve real suffering.
But simply experiencing something difficult doesn’t, in itself, mean that we are “taking up our cross” in the Christian sense. The cross Jesus speaks about is inseparable from the choice to follow him. It is the cost that sometimes comes precisely because we have chosen to live as his disciples.
For example, I may have been deeply hurt by someone. The hurt itself isn’t necessarily the cross. The cross may be choosing to forgive when everything within me wants to hold onto the resentment. It is a choice I make because of my relationship with Jesus.
I may see someone being treated unfairly. The injustice itself isn’t necessarily my cross. Taking up the cross may mean choosing to speak out, knowing that doing so could make things difficult for me. The choice is the cross.
Or I may find myself in a situation where telling a lie would make life easier. Taking up the cross may mean choosing to tell the truth, knowing that honesty could cost me.
In each case, it isn’t simply the difficulty that makes it a Christian cross. The cross is the cost of choosing the way of Jesus when another way would be easier. Jesus himself didn’t go looking for suffering. He chose love. He chose truth. He chose obedience and faithfulness to the Father. He chose to give himself completely for us. He
remained faithful even when his path led to Calvary.
So maybe the big question for each of us is: Whose path am I following? Am I willing to make the choices that come with following Jesus, or do I simply want Jesus to bless the choices that I have already made?
Jesus doesn’t promise that the road will always be easy. He simply says: “Follow me, this is the way to the fullness of life.”
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Please consider praying a decade of the rosary on a daily basis for the evangelising Mission of the Church and the Pope’s intentions.
The Pope’s prayer intention for the month of August:
For evangelisation in the City
Let us pray that in large cities often marked by anonymity and loneliness we find new ways to proclaim the Gospel, discovering creative paths to build community.
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Blessed Pauline Jaricot, Pray for us. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
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