The essence of discipleship
August 30, 2026 – Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Psalm 63, R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.; Romans 12:1-2; Gospel – Matthew 16:21-27
Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah in last Sunday’s Gospel blessed him and us with the gift of the papacy: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” This was a divinely inspired moment, which was followed by today’s Gospel.
Here, Jesus described the cost, as well as the meaning of discipleship, further emphasizing that there is no Christian mission apart from a sharing in the mission of Jesus.
A teaching moment
Let us look at these two points for our reflection: the cost and meaning of discipleship. But first, we will reflect on the dynamics of Peter and how this defined his relationship with Jesus.
Peter is the epitome of our human struggle between a genuine desire to love and serve God with all our heart and our own shortcomings and sinful inclinations. This is why many can relate with Peter.
When Jesus predicted his Passion, Cross, and Resurrection, the fulfillment of his mission as the Messiah, Peter objected and rebuked Jesus. The same man whom Jesus earlier praised as divinely inspired when he recognized him as the Messiah, now seemed off and did not realize this was the meaning of Jesus’ Messiahship.
“You are thinking—not as God does, but as human beings do.” Jesus drove home this point as a reminder to Peter, whose human imperfection was being impetuous. To this, Jesus pointed out that he needed more time to be formed.
“Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.” It was an order to learn to be a disciple. Get behind me and follow me. This was the essence of discipleship, to be a follower of Jesus.
All Christian mission is lived in the following of Jesus. We become his disciples when we share in his mission, when we follow him. We are his disciples, channels of his grace and instruments in his hands.
Jesus now used this moment as a teaching moment or a learning moment. He clarified the cost and the meaning of discipleship. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
The “how” of discipleship
The cost of discipleship was self-denial, the necessary humility to be able to take up our cross. And it is through this “how” of discipleship that made it possible for Peter to take up his cross and be a genuine disciple.
Then came the meaning of discipleship. Aside from the way of the Cross and Resurrection being the most exalted path to be a disciple, discipleship was a total self-offering, a total self-sacrifice through which we are saved. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
This meaning of discipleship is at one and the same: jolting and enticing. German theologian and philosopher Rudolf Otto’s “The Idea of the Holy” calls this the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, where we are awed and experience a certain “fear” of the holy, and at the same time, feel a deep attraction of fascination.
Otto pointed out that this is the experience of the “holy” or the “numinous” experience, non-rational, not irrational.
Jesuit English poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., wrote that things from God often begin with fear—the mysterium tremendum. The Cross and Resurrection is the numinous experience, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans par excellence.
It is such an experience that leads us to losing our life that we may find eternal life, the essence of the Cross and Resurrection, and the essence of discipleship.
