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Nobody likes to be duped but
that is exactly what the prophet Jeremiah accuses God of doing to him in
today's readings. Jeremiah had a nice life as a dresser of sycamores,
whatever that was! He had no desire to be a prophet, much less one who
had to bring bad news to people in high places. Furthermore he had no
confidence in his ability to be God's spokesperson. For his part God had
BIG plans for Jeremiah, and he was not going to let the prophet's
timidity interfere with those plans.
In a way God must seduce each and every one of us. Who in their right
mind would want to crawl up on the cross in order to suffer with the
Lord? But in order for us to share in the glory of the resurrection, we
must also share in the cross of the Lord.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul urges us not to be seduced by the
times in which we live. Instead, he wants us to discern the will of God
for our lives, so that we can do what is good, pleasing, and perfect.
In Matthew's gospel we see
how easily Peter is seduced by worldly thinking. In last week's gospel
he was "the rock" upon which Christ was going to build the Church. This
week Peter is "Satan," becoming an obstacle to the Lord's mission. Jesus
makes it quite clear, to follow the Christ is to carry the cross.
There are still some people
who think that they can have it all. They honestly believe that if they
make enough money, have enough power, know enough people, they can get
through this life without having to suffer. No one comes into this life
without experiencing its pain and no one leaves this life without being
touched by its pain. To be a living person is to know suffering. We
cannot save our lives by running from human suffering. But we do have a
great hero in our suffering. The Lord Jesus showed us that we can do
wonderful things to alleviate the sufferings of others. He further
taught us that we can bring our suffering to his cross in order to make
our suffering redemptive. Any suffering that is offered up to God in
Christ for the salvation of the world is never wasted suffering. It
becomes holy; it becomes redemptive. By losing our lives in this way, we
find them. Our challenge is to overcome our fear of suffering in order
to take up our cross and follow Jesus into glory. |
