Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53
There is always salvation for those who wait on the Lord!
In an age of political correctness, the desire to say just what people want to hear and not to offend others, does the truth still have a place in our polity and religious life? What is the role of faith and religion in a secularized and modernized world? These are serious questions to be asked, if religion, particularly Christianity, will be relevant to our contemporary world.
In the so-called first-world, issues like abortion, euthanasia, same-sex union, gun control and eugenics are considered no-go-area, especially for religious intervention and discuss. In the so-called third-world, questions of contraception, election rigging, government looting, religious hypocrisy and false-prophesying are frowned at, when brought to public square. We seem to be living in times when people have lost both moral compass and the sense of the divine. All that counts is the right to do whatever one likes, when and how.
Our first reading today makes the case that those who wish to stand up to our society and its ills should prepare themselves for persecution and martyrdom. Simply put, truth comes at a prize: ridicule, imprisonment and isolation. Not just any kind of truth, we mean the confrontation of our world and its ethos from the perspective of the Judeo-Christian message of sacrificial love and self-abnegation; the story of prophecy in Israel, a Jewish perspective on moral rectitude and a divinely impacted living, and the Christ-centered life of a Christian. These perspectives are largely unwelcome in our society today.
Two lessons are worth mentioning in our first reading: 1) the Judeo-Christian enemies are not outsiders, but insiders: the persecutors of Jeremiah were fellow Jews; 2) patience in suffering or the hope of heaven helps those suffering to patiently wait for God’s intervention for their liberation from oppression: Jeremiah was delivered from the pit.
The story of the rejection of Jeremiah’s prophecy and his subsequent incarceration in a muddy well tells the tale of the persecution which awaits those who stand on the side of God and truth. It narrates the story of how those who persecute the prophets of every generation are the same people who profess the same faith as the prophet they persecute. This means that in every generation, including ours, opinions will be always divided about the right and wrong practice of religion; either the practice of religion for one’s selfish motives and gains or for the service and liberation of others, especially those on the margins of our societies. Notice, however, that the king who gave permission for Jeremiah to be cast into the cistern, also sent and rescued Jeremiah: there is always salvation for those who wait on the Lord!
A close reading of this Sunday’s gospel reveals the source of the Christian problem: not the Christian, but the Christ; not the messenger, but the message. This was also the case with Jeremiah: Jeremiah was not the problem, but his prophecy was. Our world fights tooth and nail to render the Christian message irrelevant. Those who maintain that there is salvation and power in the Christian message, and try to live out the Christian message in its purity and authenticity, are the ipso facto outcasts of our times. This is the meaning of Jesus’ statement today, “I have come to set the earth on fire” (Luke 12:49).
Interestingly, the fire of the gospel is a double edge sword, it consumes its possessor and hearers. Those who hear the gospel are challenged, so they fight to get rid of the gospel. Those who preach the gospel suffer persecution, but endure it for the kingdom of heaven; yes, the Christian life and message is a consuming fire! The family feuds in today’s gospel are commonplace experiences today: straight against gays, promoters of second amendment and advocates of gun control, conservatives and liberals, anti-war campaigners and war-mongers, charismatics and anti-charismatics, the list is endless, just as the problems are.
One solution to how to deal with the reality of the Christian life, how to be a Christian today, is from our second reading. A Christian learns from the lives of saints and martyrs of the past, their fidelity in persecution as well as in good times. In addition to this imitation, a Christian fixes her/his gaze squarely on heaven. The best example of a Christian life is Christ himself, whose endurance of suffering was made light because of the “future good” to accrue to humanity from his death. The power of a Christian comes from his hope in God and immortality in heaven.
Every cross and persecution hides, temporarily, the triumph of the cross and grave – the resurrection. The resurrection is made present in every suffering and pain through the theological virtue of hope. A Christian hope is active, and never passive because Christ died and rose from the dead; so, every Christian is already risen from the dead because of Christ. How is this possible? Just look at the good that is still being done around you and me today, and realize that evil will never have an ultimate triumph over good. Even the king who gave permission for Jeremiah to be punished changed his mind and saved Jeremiah. Indeed, there is always salvation for those who wait on the Lord, even today! Keep hope alive today, because there are still saints and martyrs among us today; because of what you and I continue to do, Christianity is still a power to reckon with; keep hope alive: do good!
Assignment for the Week:
Recall to mind an occasion you felt abandoned and help came, as a lesson in patience!
Thanx Fr.
Good one Fr.
This is so enriching that I felt missing a lot by just coming in cognition of this website. Thanks to God for giving us people like Fr. Ayo who could explain the Scripture in such a clearer manner.
Well done.