Homily: 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Friends, today our readings give us another insight into Jesus’
teaching on the costs of discipleship.
Particularly, they speak to the often-paradoxical ways that following
God’s call reveals to us the deepest meaning of our lives: that is, how deep
meaning and fulfillment most often manifest themselves through distress and
hardship. This is a truly fundamental thing
to understand and so it’s worth taking a deeper look at the readings so as to
understand.
In our first reading, we heard the prophet Jeremiah
lamenting the fact that he had allowed himself to be tricked (or “duped”) by
God. Very young when God first called
him, Jeremiah tried to convince God to pick somebody else. God, however, insisted on promises that he
would be with him to deliver him from whoever would oppose him. Jeremiah, however, wasn’t feeling the
love. Every time that he prophesied in
the Lord’s name he was compelled to speak of God’s outrage at his chosen people
for having disobeyed him for so long and of the violence that would come upon
them if they didn’t change their ways.
Because of the seeming absurdity of his message—and, perhaps, because of
his young age—Jeremiah was roundly mocked, derided, and at times assaulted for
speaking such things. Thus, he felt like
God had tricked him into doing this with false promises of security and we hear
him today “kicking himself” for allowing himself to be tricked.
In our Gospel reading, Peter seems to be feeling like he
had been tricked also. After having
responded to divine inspiration to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ of God, and
after having received such a glowing approval from Jesus (the one which we
heard last week: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah…), Peter is now
confronted by Jesus’ proclamation that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and be
killed by the elders and to be raised on the third day. Perhaps we could understand Peter’s strong
reaction: “What? No way will we ever
let this happen to you!” Peter was
confident that he had found the Christ and the Christ for whom he was waiting
would be an all-conquering king. Thus,
he felt like he had been tricked when Christ revealed that his grim fate would
be to suffer and to be killed at the hands of the elders.
Jesus, however, took this opportunity to teach his
disciples an important lesson.
Discipleship would not lead one into honor and prestige in this world;
rather it would lead to shame: the greatest shame known to man at the time,
that of being crucified. The shame would
only be an earthly shame, however: for having lost their lives for his sake in
this world, they would in turn find the eternal life that salvation would bring
them. And, as we would see years on from
this event, Peter would eventually find the deepest meaning of his life in the
cross that he had been “tricked” to carry.
Jeremiah, too, would find the deepest meaning in his life
by carrying the cross that he felt he had been “tricked” to carry. For when he says that he tried to keep
himself from speaking the Lord’s words, those words would become like a fire
burning within his heart that he could not contain, that he could not endure;
as if trying to contain them was something unnatural to him, while their
spilling forth from him brought relief, even as it brought forth the cross of
ridicule and derision.
Most of you don’t know this, but I am not originally from
Indiana. I grew up in the Chicago area
and originally pursued a career in engineering.
I wanted to work for one of the “big three” automakers and so, as I was finishing
my studies to obtain my degree in mechanical engineering, I started to apply
for jobs in the Detroit area.
Not too long after I graduated, one of the companies to
which I applied contacted me to come out for an interview. I was surprised (shocked, actually) that the
interview was not for a job in the Detroit area, but rather in Indiana (Kokomo,
in fact). Reluctantly, I did the
interview and equally reluctantly I accepted a job in Kokomo, moving to Indiana
soon after, only with the hope that I could transfer to Detroit in the future.
Not long after moving here to Indiana, I was certain that I
had been tricked and I started looking for other jobs so that I could move:
either up to Detroit or back to my home area near Chicago. I strove with no success, however; but rather
found that, when I accepted what I felt I had been tricked to accept and
decided to settle here in Indiana, God revealed the deepest meaning of my life
to me—that is, that he had called me to be a priest in this very same place—and
so here I am today.
My brothers and sisters, our lives are full of times when
we feel like we’ve been tricked by someone into accepting something that turned
out to be a much more difficult or unsatisfying experience than what that
person promised it would be. Perhaps,
like the prophet Jeremiah, we even feel like God has been that other
person. Nevertheless, if we take some
time to look deeper at the situation, perhaps we will see how God is mysteriously
using these events to reveal to us the deepest meaning of our lives: that is,
how through the cross he has “tricked” us to carry he is preparing us to live
in the Father’s glory when Christ returns.
What a message this is for us today, right? We are living in a time in which the message
of salvation could not be more important: namely, that there is an answer for all
of the brokenness evident in the world.
Whether that brokenness be the pandemic, the civil unrest surrounding
issues of race, the unstable economy, the implementation of Uniting in Heart,
or all of the wrangling that public officials do trying to take advantage of
these situations for political gain, the work that we Christians must do is to
allow our minds to be transformed by God’s grace so that we might discern his mysterious
movements within these distressful situations and proclaim that there is a
definitive answer to them all: namely, to become disciples of Jesus, to live
according to his teaching (which is God’s commandments), and therefore to
prepare for the full coming of his kingdom when he returns. Perhaps our doing so will put us at risk for rejection,
suffering, and sorrow in this world; but as our readings today show us, Christians
who suffer these things for the sake of God never suffer them without merit: for
these crosses always bring forth the full flourishing of one’s vocation (and,
thus, preparation for entering God’s kingdom).
My friends, this truth is never more evident than here in
the Eucharist. For through the cross
that Jesus was compelled to bear came the fount of everlasting life: the
sacrifice of his Body and Blood that we re-present here on this altar and the
grace of redemption that we receive when we consume it. And so, my brothers and sisters, let us
boldly take up whatever cross our vocations or these turbulent times may have “tricked”
to carry because we are disciples of Christ: for there we will find Jesus,
carrying the cross with us and leading us to our everlasting reward.
Given at St. Joseph parish:
Rochester, IN – August 29th, 2020
Given at Our Lady of Grace
parish: Noblesville, IN – August 30th, 2020
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