It seems
as if, over the centuries, many people who sincerely have desired to
lead good and holy lives have also believed that there’s
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 isn’t
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...
Although
it may seem a bit premature for me to be making this announcement,
Advent is just around the corner!
Each
year, the people at Magnificat® produce a companion edition for the
season of Advent. The 2005 companion edition is entitled “He Comes! The
King of Glory.” Similar to a what older Catholics may remember as a
"prayer book," the companion edition contains all sorts of prayers,
readings, reflections, art, and activities for every member of the
family to prepare each day of the season of Advent for the coming of
Christ at Christmas.
Grandparents might consider purchasing a copy for themselves and copies
for each of their grandchildren. Confirmation sponsors might consider
purchasing a copy for themselves as well as the person they sponsored in
the faith. Spouses might purchase a copy for themselves and use it for
daily prayer during the season of Advent. Parents might purchase a copy
for the family and use it to lead prayer before dinner each evening.
At a
price of $3 for 1-4 copies plus $1 shipping/handling, $2 for 5-9 copies
plus $3 shipping/handling, and $1.10 for 10-49 copies (plus $5
shipping/handling), the companion edition makes a perfect and very
affordable opportunity to prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas
as well as an Advent gift to spur family, friends, and colleagues toward
greater spiritual growth during the season of Advent.
The
companion edition has a limited press run that sells out each year.
Furthermore, orders are filled in the order received. So, place your
order early.
To place
an order for the 2005 companion edition of Magnificat® for the season of
Advent entitled “He Comes! The King of Glory,” call 1-970-416-6670 or
email specialissue@intrepidgroup.com for ordering information.
|