Nobody likes a Jeremiah

Homily: Friday, 5th Week in Lent -- March 30, 2012
1^st Reading: Jeremiah 20: 10-13 – Denounce! Let us denounce him
Gospel Reading: John 10: 31-42 – If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me.

Nobody likes a Jeremiah!  And even if God should send His Son, people still would not believe.   With statements like this we can wonder why would anyone want to be a prophet or a disciple, much less a Christian?

Jeremiah is one of the prophets whom many of us can identify with because of his very human struggle with his calling to bring God’s message to a people who for the most part were not too receptive to what he had to say.   In Jeremiah 20: 9 we feel his internal struggle to live up to God’s call. He says “If I say I will not mention him or speak any more in his name then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary of holding it in and I cannot.”  These words speak to the very real challenge of faithfully carrying God’s message, God’s promise to those He sends us to.  It can be ecstasy but can also be agony.  While we have the joy of receiving and accepting the Lord’s words as our own it seems that when we try to share them with others we are met with resistance.  And after repeatedly being rebuffed, scorned, ridiculed, abused and attacked, we can get tired and we don’t want to take it anymore.  But God’s words and promise are so full of life they can be like a volcano ready to erupt inside of those who have come to know the true meaning of the message.  And it seems that our only consolation when people reject us and turn their backs on us is that we are not alone. We know that there have been many before us who have felt and experienced the same things.

So today we have Jeremiah a very unpopular figure in his day.  In fact most of the prophets were unpopular figures.   Let’s face it, they have a terrible job.  Nobody likes having their shortcomings, their faults, and their failings which need correction pointed out in public or private.  But a prophet like Jeremiah who seemed to be constantly forecasting gloom and doom simply got on peoples nerves.  He was preaching at a time when the Kingdom of Judah and especially Jerusalem were constantly under attack and siege, by the Assyrians, the Egyptians, and the Babylonians.  One weak ruler in Judah after another sought to compromise with the pagan invaders.  They forgot the Covenant they had made with God.   So Jeremiah continued to warn them that such compromise would only lead to further compromise, to unending hardship, and subject them to captivity with no end in sight.  And the more He called them to accountability, the more hardhearted they got, locking him in the stocks, throwing him into cisterns, and subjecting him to all manner of punishments. 

So today we hear Jeremiah at first seeming to be feeling sorry for himself by verbalizing the rejection of his message by the people.  He is feeling mocked by words such as “Terror on every side!”  He says even his friends are saying to denounce him.  And because he has set himself up as a moral compass, he feels the pressure of them waiting for him to trip up, or fall into temptation so they can prevail and take vengeance on him.  But Jeremiah does not give in to their refutes and He does not give up on them.  Rather he loves his people and says, “for you I have entrusted my cause.  Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for He has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked.   So Jeremiah stands firm on his commitment to be God’s messenger, though he endures the same feelings of fear, loneliness, and dejection that anyone might feel when trying to live out God’s will and answer God’s call in an unreceptive and sinful world.  

Then when all of the prophets had done all they could, God sends his Son to get our attention, to provide an even clearer message, and ultimately to stand in the gap between the Father and us, a gap caused by our sinfulness.  But as we hear in today’s Gospel, sin had such a strong hold on the world, that there were still many who rejected the Son, the message and the miracles.   And eventually He would go to the Cross taking our sins with Him, but not our sinfulness.  Yes Jesus gained our salvation for us but we still have the choice to accept that salvation.  We are still subject to, liable to, vulnerable to sin.  And it is because we can still be tempted and we can still fall, that God still sends prophets.  By virtue of our Baptisms, we are not only anointed priests and kings, but also prophets.  We are called to be the Samuels, the Nathans, the Isaiah’s, and the Jeremiah’s of today.  And guess what.  People are no more going to like the message we bring today, than they did when Jeremiah prophesied.  Because the message we have to speak requires sacrifice, repentance, turning away from selfishness, pride, envy, greed, and sin.  

As Prophets today we are called to defend and uphold the sanctity of marriage as being between one man and one woman.  We are called to defend the sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception till natural death.  This means regardless of politics, regardless of where people were born or how they got here, every person’s life is sacred and must be protected.   As Prophets we are called to bring the revelation of the dignity and sanctity of the human body as expressed to us by John Paul II to everyone who can not understand why its not okay to have pre-marital relations, to use artificial contraception, or condone the harvesting of embryonic stem cells.  And even though we are called to deliver these messages without condemnation but rather with love and compassion, we are and we will continue to be met with rejection, abusive language, and hatred.  

However this is nothing new.  It has been happening since the time of Jeremiah, Jesus, and throughout the centuries up to today.  And while we may feel the struggle of Jeremiah or be met with the rejection that Jesus felt, we are still called to remain faithful remembering that God is with us. that He is guiding us and that His Son has won the final victory for us if only we can stand firm in proclaiming the truth, being compassionate in our message, and forgiving to those who can not or will not yet accept the truth.

Nobody likes a Jeremiah.  It is not a pleasant job, but it is the work of the disciple, it is the job description of our Baptism, and it the call of the God who loves us.