Many people nowadays want God, but on their own terms, not on
his. They insist that their wishes shall determine the kind of religion that is
true, rather than letting God reveal his truth to them. So their dissatisfaction
continues and grows. But God finds us lovable, even in our rebellion against
him.
Fulton J. Sheen Lift
up your heart
Throughout
the Scriptures we see that the calling, life and witness of the prophet is a
difficult and a costly one. In this morning’s first reading we see Jeremiah
being called to proclaim the word of the Lord. He is set apart for this task,
he is made holy, and God says ‘I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to
the nations’ – in order to do what a prophet does, he has to be what a prophet
is, function follows and flows from ontology, what he is, is prior, it is done
to him, so that God may work through him.
It is a difficult and a costly task,
and a prophet has to be prepared for rejection: ‘they will fight against you,
but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord,
to deliver you.’ It is far too easy especially in the current climate for the Church
to be downhearted, when we are assailed by secular power, but we have to be
like Jeremiah, and trust in God safe in the knowledge that that the one who
called is faithful and will not disappoint us. We can trust in God, we can have
faith and hope in him, so that we can speak the truth in love.
The People of Jesus’ home town
cannot see what’s going on, they simply see what they want to see, they see a
mouthy jumped-up carpenter’s son who has the temerity to challenge their
preconceptions and their lack of faith, who tells is like it is, the
uncomfortable truth, which they do not want to hear, but which they need
to hear.
Currently we are being told that our
understanding of Holy Order and Marriage need to be changed to conform to the
ways of the world; it can only be a matter of time before legislation allowing
assisted suicide to be made legal will be considered, so that we no longer have
to value life either at its beginning, or its end, that the vulnerable and
inconvenient can be disposed of by medical means, cast off, in private and away
from prying eyes. Against the vision of a secular state which does not truly
value life from its conception to a natural death, which does not value
marriage as the lifelong and indivisible union of a man and a woman for their
mutual benefit and that of society, and for the procreation and education of
children, which seeks to tell the church what it should do and how and why it
should do it, we have to offer an alternative.
It may not be popular to stand up
and proclaim the ultimate and absolute Truth found in Scripture and the
tradition of the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, but that is what the Church
is called to do. It may not be easy, people are not willing to listen, but
prefer to mock and to jeer, to remain safe and secure in their liberal secular
prejudices, looking down their noses at poor deluded fools who stand up for a
truth which they see as only one out of a myriad possible options in this
post-modern world. It is easier to persecute the church under the fig leaf of
upholding equality and diversity, of protecting religion while undermining it,
unless it conforms to the secular viewpoint.
We believe in saying that certain
actions are right and others are wrong, they will harm your soul, and affect
your relationship with God and each other, that life is precious and must be
valued, and we do this because we are loved by a God who lived among us, who
died for us, to heal our wounds, who rose again, to give us the hope of glory.
He knew rejection, throughout his earthly life, but he was not afraid to speak
the truth in love, regardless of the cost. It’s generous; it’s extravagant, in
a way which people just cannot understand – entering into glory by being
executed like a common criminal, for the love of us, of you and me – to give us
new life in him. He is the Truth, the Way and the Life.
He knew that in the end the power of
God’s love was greater than that of the world, the flesh and the devil – all these
were beaten on a hill outside Jerusalem. So confident in his victory, in his strength
and his truth, let us continue to proclaim it in word and deed so that the
world may believe and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty,
glory dominion and power, now and forever
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