topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
28 August 05


 

It seems as if, over the centuries, many people who sincerely have desired to lead good and holy lives have also believed that theres a contract involved.  The terms of the contract go something like this:

“Okay God, I’ll do this for you.  But, since I am doing this for you, you’ve got to make my life a Garden of Eden.”
 

All of us, including myself, have thought about this contract, haven’t we?  We expect that by leading good and holy lives, God will make everything perfect.  There’ll be no hassles.  There’ll be no disagreements.  We’ll get everything we want, when we want it.  And, God will fill each and every day with bliss.

We expect that by leading good and holy lives, God will turn our marriages into the stuff of fairy tales.  Husbands and wives will have no quirks or personality defects that prove to be burdensome and divisive.  When spouses are tired and worn out, they’ll continue to give one hundred percent of themselves to each other.  God will fill the days, weeks, months, years, and decades of marriage with pure, unadulterated love.

We expect that by leading good and holy lives, God will make our children like the child Jesus.  Sons and daughters will never disobey.  They will not be selfish nor will they whine, gripe, or complain.  No, just like the child Jesus, God will bless us with children who will always busy themselves doing their Father’s will.

Today’s scripture suggests that this contract has, is, and always will be nothing but the stuff of pure fantasy.  There is no contract governing the terms of what it means to live good and holy lives.  In fact, today’s scripture reminds us that the lot of those who want to lead good and holy lives isnt one of happiness and joy, but rather that of pain and frustration.  What God has promised to those who seek to lead good and holy lives is not the Garden of Eden and a bed of roses, but the Way of the Cross and a crown of thorns!

Take Jeremiah, for instance.

In today’s first reading, we heard Jeremiah complaining to and blaming God for the all of the pain and frustration that Jeremiah has been experiencing.

What’s caused all of Jeremiah’s troubles?

Simple: It was his desire to live a good and holy life.  In Jeremiah’s youthful idealism and enthusiasm, he said “Yes” when God asked Jeremiah to proclaim God’s word to the Israelite people.  Now, after decades of having wholeheartedly responded to God’s call, Jeremiah cries out in his pain and frustration, angrily saying “You duped me.”  (The translation is correct, but not accurate; Jeremiah used the word “seduced,” which highlights even more graphically Jeremiah’s belief that there was a contract.)

What were the terms of this alleged contract?

For his part, being a prophet evidently meant that Jeremiah would faithfully proclaim God’s word to the Israelites.  For their part, the Israelites would listen attentively and respond wholeheartedly.  Then, everyone would live happily ever after as God’s holy people.  But, as Jeremiah learned upon fulfilling his part of the contract, the Israelites didn’t listen attentively nor did they respond wholeheartedly.  Quite the opposite!  They turned on Jeremiah.

Depressed by this turn of events, Jeremiah lamented his betrayal by family and friends.   Doubt and despair began to weigh heavily upon Jeremiah.  So, he decided: “…I will not mention God.”  And, Jeremiah also promised: “I will speak in God’s name no more.”

God wasn’t finished with Jeremiah, however, and asked Jeremiah—at an advanced age—to take another crack at proclaiming God’s word.

Knowing the rejection he would face—because, after all, Jeremiah had already been stung by rejection—Jeremiah blamed God for his plight and was determined not to respond with a wholehearted “Yes” for a second time.  “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!”, Jeremiah most likely was thinking.

At the same time, however, somewhere deep in Jeremiah’s heart, something else was happening.  Jeremiah felt God’s word becoming “like a fire.”  Jeremiah also felt himself growing “weary holding it in” as if God’s word was going to burst forth out of him like the creature in the movie, Alien.  “I cannot endure it,” Jeremiah said.

What was happening in Jeremiah’s heart?

God’s word was stirring Jeremiah to leave behind his fantasy of how leading a good and holy life would “earn” him bliss, that is, God “owed” Jeremiah for complying with God’s call.  Instead, God wanted Jeremiah to embrace a more spiritually mature and realistic understanding of holiness where Jeremiah “owed” God everything.  God’s word was stirring in Jeremiah’s heart to the point that nothing, not even his suffering, could keep Jeremiah from responding to God’s word.  And, as God’s word continued to stir in Jeremiah’s heart, he found himself mustering up the courage it would take to proclaim God’s word once again.  Jeremiah courageously accepted the pain and frustration he knew would be coming his way, including rejection.  Yet, he willingly committed himself to proclaim God’s word again.

This is what it means and what it is like to live a good and holy life.

How much are we like Jeremiah?  Are we infatuated with an unrealistic image of what proclaiming God’s word should “earn” us...how God “owes” us because of all that we’ve done for him?  Then, as trials and tests come, do the pain, frustration, and rejection we experience tempt us to give up on proclaiming God’s word and, then, to blame God for our vicissitudes because God has not come through on his part of the contract?

Like Jeremiah, all of us have experienced the pain and frustration of feeling duped when we’ve responded wholeheartedly to God’s word.  Even so, do we feel the word of God stirring anew in our hearts, challenging us once again to proclaim God’s word in our world?  Do we have the courage and can we muster it up to remain committed to our personal vocations?  Will we continue to proclaim God’s word despite pain, frustration, and rejection?

Whereas Jeremiah complained angrily of being duped when he realized what it really cost to live a good and holy life, Jesus told his disciples precisely what the cost would be.  Jesus said: “I must die.”  To be sure, being duped is one thing, but dying in order to live a good and holy life is an altogether different matter!

“I must die.”

Like Peter, we most likely don’t find these words comforting.  We would rather live blissful days in the Garden of Eden surrounded by roses and where everything is just wonderful.  In this fantasy, Jesus is crowned King, is seated on his throne in majesty, and people worship him enthusiastically.  Living good and holy lives in this fantasy is easy!  But, Jesus challenged this fantasy, saying to Peter—and to us as well, “Get behind me, you Satan.”  That is, if you want to live a good and holy life, “follow me by doing as I do.”  In this reality, Jesus is crowned with thorns, is nailed to a cross, and everyone runs to the hills for cover.  Living good and holy lives when confronted by this reality isn’t easy!

So, what might this mean for those of us who are sincere about leading good and holy lives?

For the most part, living a good and holy life by following Jesus and doing as he does means surrendering everything so that we will be free and unencumbered to proclaim God’s word.  For some, it means casting aside the fantasy of “having it all.”  For others, it means casting aside the fantasy of “no pain, no frustration, and no rejection.”  For all of us, it means making sacrifices.  Unlike Peter—and perhaps ourselves on occasion, too—living a good and holy life by following Jesus and doing as he does means thinking as God does, not as human beings do.  This requires the very hard work of conversion, as St. Paul urged the Romans: “Don’t conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is God’s will, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Living a good and holy life by following Jesus and doing as he does also means standing up for the truth.  This presumes, of course, that we know what the truth is!  Living as we do in a world of where the standard of moral judgment is “it’s okay because everybody’s doing it” and where people say “I’m okay, you’re okay” so that no one will disagree, disciples must contest everything that’s not okay and boldly proclaim that some things are “wrong.”  At the same time, it also means modeling for people what is “right” so, like Peter as he stood behind Jesus, people can stand behind us and imitate us.  In short, we must have integrity.  We must possess and live out a set of values and beliefs forthrightly and consistently.  As we stand behind Jesus, we must stay the course, as Jesus did, especially when pain, frustration, rejection and temptation come our way, as they surely will!

Lastly, living a good and holy life by following Jesus and doing as he does means proclaiming our faith, even in the face of ridicule and rejection.  This doesn’t mean “moralizing,” something Jesus never did.  What it does mean is that we forthrightly defend what morality requires of all people no matter what their faith or lack of faith may be.  That is, we must proclaim without equivocation what God’s will is,” as St. Paul wrote, “what is good and pleasing and perfect.  In a world where “nuance” and “spin” are the coin of the realm, living a good and holy life demands not nuancing and spinning God’s word.  Instead, by their word and example, people who lead good and holy lives boldly proclaim their faith despite what others may think about or do to them.  In sum, these women and men stand behind Jesus and nothing matters to them except who they are in God’s sight, not in the sight of other people.

Today’s scripture reminds us that if we are determined to live good and holy lives by following Jesus and doing as he did, each of us must proclaim God’s word to our world in our own unique and unrepeatable way.  God has breathed His word into our hearts so that it can be the source of our character, the source of our courage, and the source of our conviction.  Trusting in God’s word is what will give us the energy to remain committed in the face of pain, frustration and rejection as well as in times of temptation and trial.  These are the places—Gethsemane and Calvary not the Garden of Eden—where true holiness is learned!

Like Jeremiah, despite the pain, frustration, and rejection that proclaiming God’s word will bring and, like Jesus, everything that will be heaped upon us for boldly proclaiming God’s word—even death, God’s word will help us, as St. Paul noted, to discern what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing, and perfect.

And, for all of this, God doesn’t “owe” those who live good and holy lives and follow Jesus by doing what he did a Garden of Eden.  No, as we walk the Way of the Cross and bear the burden of holiness upon our shoulders, what once seemed to be an enormous cross ultimately turns out to be an enormous source of blessing for the world.  That is how we become what St. Paul called “holy and pleasing to God.”  It is also how our lives give God spiritual worship.

 

A brief commercial break...
 

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