Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
This summer I have been reading a lot of books...mostly old favorites and classics everyone reads in high school or college. This has been very enjoyable but they all seem very different now. Of course, having forty more years of life experience has a lot to do with it; there is less imagining and more identification with characters’ emotions, behaviors, and struggles. It struck me how the capacity to accept life on life’s terms (as opposed to my own) powerfully influences the life of all human beings. Life is often much harder than it has to be when we fight to change people or things that are truly outside of our power to control.
The passage from Matthew chapter 17 begins with an encounter between Jesus and his disciples. For the second time in this Gospel, Jesus is telling his disciples of his impending suffering and death. Unlike Matthew’s earlier passage (Mt 16:22) when Peter so strongly objects to Jesus’ first revelation, this time they have gained some understanding and believe him; the verse says, “they were overwhelmed with grief”. They had come to some level of acceptance even though it was almost unbearable. Later in the passage, Jesus tells Peter, the future leader of his Church, the importance of paying the temple tax: this is a teaching moment for Peter on how to live in the world as a child of the Kingdom...at times accepting what appears to be unjust. Jesus provides payment of the tax for Peter and himself (a funny little miracle in verse 27) while making it clear that his example is meant for others entrusted to his care.
Life presents circumstance beyond our control on a daily basis. Of course there are times we must not accept things as they are...we must work to change them. It is about Christian discernment...bringing Jesus into each situation, each challenge we face. Jesus is our most perfect model of acceptance, of how to become a mature human being with a great capacity for acceptance. Rejection, insult, and death on the cross--just a few examples of what Jesus accepted in order to accomplish our salvation. It is worthwhile placing our lives before God, taking the opportunity to pray for acceptance. Let us ask God to show us where, in our personal lives, we must start accepting what is not in our power to change and to grant us the grace to do so.
- Gail Lyman