22nd. Sunday of Year
(A)
(Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew
16:21-27)
The words of St. Paul in our second
reading:
Do not conform
yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you
may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and
perfect,
are as pertinent and necessary today
as they were at the very beginning of Christianity. Then, many Christians were tempted, or driven
by fear of the persecuting might of the Roman Empire, to conform to expected
state-worship and thus save themselves from being reported as refusing to join
in sacrifices to the traditional gods for the well-being of the Empire and the
Emperor himself.
Likewise today, many wavering or
nominal Catholics strive earnestly to keep in tune with the currently acceptable
opinions and attitudes of society around them and today’s first reading from the
Book of the prophet Jeremiah was one that would not have been comfortable
hearing for them, since the impressions of ordinary non-religious people these
days with regard the prophet Jeremiah – if, indeed, such people have any
awareness of the prophet at all – derive from the cloud which hovers over his
very name: for they regard a ‘Jeremiah’ as one who always looks on the dark side of things, a harbinger
of evil whose legacy is an ancient book called ‘Lamentations’, the like of which
are now frequently termed as ‘Jeremiads’.
Occasional Catholics dare not resist
such talk because it is so very easy for people who decry the prophet to then
turn round and mock any who show him or his writings respect or reverence as
being as weak personalities, fragile characters, unable to share and rub
shoulders with others in the normal joys of life, unwilling to echo what others
proclaim as being so very good in current thought and practices; and of being –
to put it bluntly – real Jeremiah’s,
full of despondency and complaints concerning modern society!
And so, although neither
Jeremiah’s personal courage nor his fidelity to the office of prophet-in-Israel
can ever be questioned let alone denied, nevertheless he seems condemned to
permanently suffer under the common misapprehension that he was ‘a bit of a
moaner’ even though today’s short first
reading shows how far he was, in fact, from being such ‘a moaner’. For, moaners are always complaining to
others, constantly soliciting the sympathy of those around them, whereas
Jeremiah only gave expression to his anxieties and fears in the secrecy of
personal prayer to God. Far from being
public cries for human sympathy, his words were private and most humble
acknowledgements before God alone about his deep fear of being personally unfit
for the divine task being asked of him.
Before men, as I have just said,
Jeremiah showed himself as most courageous, one called to suffer much over many
years as a servant of the Lord. It is
true that he publicly and frequently forecasted disaster, but that was the task
given him by the Lord; the words and the warnings were of the Lord's
commissioning not of Jeremiah’s choosing.
In one passage of his book he tells
us (Jeremiah 15:16) just how much he loved the word of God:
Your words
were found, and I ate them, Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my
heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.
But, rejoicing so whole-heartedly in
God's word, and having sincerely tried to fulfil the Lord’s command, Jeremiah
was both puzzled at the reception given to his proclamation of the word of the
Lord, and alarmed at the outcry it stirred up against him personally. And so, in his private prayer to God he
says:
Why is my pain
perpetual and my wound incurable? Will
You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that
fail? (15:18)
You will get a true idea and real
awareness of his courage if you appreciate that what was happening to him was
that which most people today fear above all: he was being mocked by his friends
and acquaintances, opposed and rejected by the generality of his own people, and
even hated by the religious authorities; all because he was proclaiming -- in
the name of the Lord -- a message they refused to listen to and would not
accept:
Whenever I
speak, violence and outrage is my message; the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.
Foreshadowing somewhat in that way
the loneliness of our Blessed Lord on Calvary, he cried:
Woe is me, my
mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the
whole earth! (15:10)
Surely you will appreciate that only
a man of strong spirit and great courage would have dared to repeatedly proclaim
a message everyone considered unpatriotic and defeatist, a message no one wanted
to hear and which brought down so great a measure of public opprobrium and
personal contempt upon his head.
In his prayers he told the Lord how
he had thought of keeping his mouth shut: why keep on shouting out what no one
will accept; proclaiming what only brings public derision, and provokes -- what
is much worse -- official suspicion and opposition bordering on
hatred?
And yet, when he tried to keep
silent he found that:
(His
word) becomes like a
fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary of holding it in,
I cannot endure it.
He was in a dilemma: for though he
dreaded speaking out, yet he was finding it impossible to keep quiet. He did indeed need to pray, to seek God's
help and guidance, for only the Lord could appreciate and alleviate his
situation.
Listen carefully to what the Lord
said to him, however, because it may well surprise you, since it clearly shows
that commiseration and sympathy are not always the true expression of divine
love; being very human words indeed, they can easily be uttered for public
hearing and the enhancement of the speaker’s personal reputation:
If you repent,
I will restore you that you may serve Me; if you utter worthy, not worthless,
words, you will be My spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not
turn to them. (15:19)
Notice those words “If you repent, I
will restore you that you may serve Me”.
In other words: repent, because at present you are not showing yourself
as one worthy to serve Me; for, to serve Me -- even if it involves earthly
suffering -- is a privilege.
We should also notice those other
words:
Let this
people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.”
You must not try to make your
preaching acceptable to them: My Word is My Word; it alone – in its full
integrity -- is good for My people; don't you dare change or adapt it to their
liking.
Yes, People of God, how important it
is for Catholic Christians today to realise that God's message is not to be
evaluated in accordance with its popularity: it is not to be adapted and
changed in order to accommodate modern fancies, opinions, or desires. Moreover, how necessary it is for us to
calmly appreciate that it is always a supreme gift and privilege to serve
God, and any suffering it might involve calls for a measure of divine
strength and wisdom, gifts that God can give, and will give to those who turn to
Him with a confidence and patience that Jeremiah had to learn, not, indeed, only
for himself but also for our example and encouragement.
Sadly, the heroism of Jeremiah is
confirmed today by too many Catholics who never stand up for Jesus and the
Church, who shun all that calls for active involvement and personal risk on
behalf of the Gospel in its confrontation with the world.
However, today I want not so much to
reprove bad Catholics as to encourage good ones, and in the Gospel reading there
is much help for all who want to give of their best for God’s
purposes.
There, Jesus began to speak to His
disciples about His forthcoming condemnation and crucifixion, and we are told
that:
Peter took Him
aside and began to rebuke Him, "God forbid Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to You.”
Whereupon Jesus turned sharply on
Peter saying:
Get behind Me,
Satan! You are an obstacle to Me. You
are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
To shake Peter out of his popular
and comforting expectations He had to use harsh words, insisting most firmly
that He Himself, and consequently His Church and His disciples, could in no way
expect to live untroubled, peaceful, lives here in this wicked world:
You are
thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.
Consequently, we who love Mother
Church should not, must never, allow ourselves to be alarmed or become
despondent when our Faith is attacked, mocked, denied, or simply ignored by the
majority, for it happened to Jesus Himself (John 15:20s.):
Remember the
word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also
persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these
things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who
sent Me.
In our present trials here in the
West, and in the repeated persecutions and murders of Catholics and Christians
all over the world, we must always bear in mind Jesus' clear
admonition:
Whoever wishes
to come after Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain
the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his
life? For the Son of Man will come with
His angels in His Father’s glory, and then He will repay everyone according to
his conduct.
People of God: have quiet confidence
and firm trust in God, for you have all been personally called by the Father to
serve His Son and to find salvation through Him and in Mother Church. You have divine strength available to you,
for you are in the Church where the full truth about Jesus, and all the grace
and power of His Spirit, are at your disposal in her teaching, and through her
sacraments and fellowship. However, you
need to realize that you yourself have something to bring for the celebration
and enjoyment of the inaugural feast of God’s glorious Kingdom … the wedding
garment of faith. Strength is not to be
felt first; first comes your commitment of faith, in response to which is given
such strength, joy, and peace as will enable you to bear up under your
cross. Try to realize and appreciate
just how close you are to those very earliest Christians who suffered for the
Faith in the pagan atmosphere of the all-conquering Roman Empire to whom Peter
wrote words (1 Peter 4:12-14) which
apply personally to all of us today:
Beloved, do
not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though
some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake
of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad
with exceeding joy. If you are
reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and
of God rests upon you.
