It’s
the first Sunday of summer and we may have come to Mass hoping we’d get
something a little light and breezy in the scripture readings -
something uplifting and not too demanding. Instead, we got a full court
press! The reading from Jeremiah was all about terror, denunciation and
vengeance, and the gospel reading was deadly serious, too.
With Jeremiah, we never get light fare.
Jeremiah’s name is a synonym for plotting and persecution, destruction
and doom. Jeremiah’s call came while he was in his mother’s womb. He was
a marked man from the start. Nothing was ever easy for him. God
kept putting words into his mouth that got him into trouble. Again
and again, he railed against the kings and people of Israel for their
repeated unfaithfulness to God, threatening them with famine, plunder,
conquest and exile because they had abandoned the Covenant and engaged
in the worship of false gods.
No wonder people didn’t like Jeremiah, plotted
against him, and even conspired to kill him; no wonder his prophetic
utterances and outbursts sound a bit paranoid at times: “I hear the
whisperings of many… ‘Let us denounce him! All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.’” And no wonder, either, that
Jeremiah turned on his persecutors, asking God to put them to utter
shame and confusion, to take vengeance on them and destroy them.
All of that is quite understandable – maybe not
all that edifying, but certainly human. But if we compare Jeremiah with
another persecuted prophet – Jesus comes to mind – Jeremiah comes up
short. There’s a stark difference between Jeremiah’s anguished, angry
attacks on his persecutors and the way Jesus dealt with his persecutors:
Jesus, who remained silent before his executioners, refusing to strike
back, Jesus who, when nailed to the cross prayed those amazing words,
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
And the words of Jesus today from Matthew’s
gospel, words he spoke to the twelve before sending them out on mission,
are in marked contrast to Jeremiah, too. Jesus had just warned his
friends that the message they preached would cause them to be dragged
before the civil authorities, manhandled and beaten. Even so, he told
them, they should not lose hope because God had the very hairs on their
heads numbered. No need, then, to fear those who kill the body because
they cannot kill the soul.
You see, then, what I mean by the sharp
contrast between Jeremiah and Jesus! Both were prophets. Both had been
called by God from their mother’s womb, and both suffered the fate of
prophets for speaking truth to power. But Jesus took the prophet’s
calling to a whole new level. Jesus blessed his persecutors, and
proclaimed the persecuted, the peacemakers, the merciful and those who
mourn to be blessed – heirs of the kingdom of heaven.
How could he say such things, call such people
blessed? Only, I think, because he first knew those very blessings
himself - he whose relationship with his Father was so strong, so deep,
that his inner peace could not be disturbed, no matter what sort of
hatred and persecution swirled around him.
All of this puts me in mind of another prophet,
a modern one, who in his fight against the terrible evils and injustices
of racism faced brutal opposition, constant threats and physical
violence. I’m thinking of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In one of his
memorable speeches – the one he gave in Memphis only a day before he was
cut down by an assassin’s bullet – Dr. King sounded a lot like Jesus
(not so much like Jeremiah) as he instilled hope in people and kept a
dream alive. “I’m happy tonight,’ he told the people. “I just want to do
God’s will. We’ve got some difficult days ahead but it really doesn’t
matter. Because I’ve been to the mountain top and seen the Promised
Land! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”
That image of being to the mountain top nicely
connects Dr. King with Jesus who proclaimed his gospel of peace on the
Mount of Beatitudes and who was gloriously transfigured – fired up for
his mission - on a mountaintop.
But what does all this talk of prophets have to
do with us? It has everything to do with us. We have all been
called to be prophets, anointed as prophets. At our baptism. Again at
our Confirmation. And living out that prophetic calling is really our
life’s work as Christians. And a steep climb it can be at times,
especially when we have the courage of our convictions and are not
afraid to espouse unpopular positions or to use our voice for those who
have no voice, to stand up for what is right. In these days especially –
and I thought of this last Monday on the national holiday – in these
days it means standing in solidarity with our black sisters and
brothers, denouncing discrimination based on race or the color of one’s
skin, demanding justice for them and the redressing of centuries of
wrong. So, yes, our call to be prophets can be a steep climb. But why
should we get off any easier than Jesus? Or Dr. King? Or Jeremiah, for
that matter? And don’t forget that we, too, have been to the
mountain top. We have. Many times. In fact, every time we gather
to celebrate the Eucharist we’re on the mountain top where we get a
glimpse of the Promised Land, and our eyes, too, get to see “the glory
of the coming of the Lord!”
My friends, when we leave this mountain top
today – this hilltop above Seattle - may we have new energy to be the
prophets God is calling us to be!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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