Homily for 3rd September 2023 | 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time 2023

 

My dear brothers and sisters on this 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, in the first reading we come across the prophet Jeremiah who expresses his anguish as he is caught in between God who has insisted that he preach the difficult word of warning to the people and the people who refuse to believe him. The Hebrew word ‘pathah’- פָתָה which Jeremiah uses generally gets translated as enticed, but can also be translated as deceived or even seduced.  Jeremiah complains to God that he did not choose to be a prophet but he was in a way compelled by God. Jeremiah seems to be saying that he had understood his relationship to Yahweh to be something like a marriage bond but now he feels that he has been deceived and cheated by Yahweh. In a way, Jeremiah is justified in complaining as he was imprisoned and tortured by the priest Pashhur who was the chief officer in the temple for preaching God’s word.

As a faithful messenger of the Lord, certainly, this was not easy to reconcile with and he had to bear a painful price. Many a time Jeremiah wanted to give up, but he couldn’t. The people mocked Jeremiah’s message of fear and coming catastrophe. They waited for his stumbling, looking for a chance to take their revenge on him. Despite the pain and difficulty of his work and his many enemies, Jeremiah found confidence in Yahweh. God’s might and awe were a greater fact than his pain, humiliation, rejection, and beatings. Jeremiah would realize that God was his shield and his great reward. Jeremiah was content to leave the matter to God. Although he would have to continue fighting the battle, he knew that his reliance upon God had to be constant.

How often have we given up in the face of difficulty? I remember once when I was taking a session on using social media for evangelization, one youth said that when he put up some religious posts he had to face a lot of trolling and hate online and hence, he stopped posting religious content. Even I at times receive quite hurtful comments on my videos, which are not easy to read and I too have complained to God asking him why I have to face this when I am doing His work. What happened with Jeremiah continues to happen even today. The challenge before us is not to bow down in the face of opposition but rather take courage in knowing that God always has our back and continue playing the role of a prophet in our day-to-day lives.

In the second reading taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul presents to us a call to commitment, a commitment to be worked out by a whole new way of thinking and behaving. Some obey God out of guilt and others out of greed or self-interest but God wants more than that. Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice to God should result in the transformation of our lives. The offering of ourselves to God is a choice which determines whom we will serve and whom we will follow. Paul offers practical counsel regarding faithful discipleship. The Christians in Rome to whom Paul is writing this epistle are for the most part Gentiles and feel no obligation to offer animal sacrifices. Paul says, however, that they have a sacrificial obligation that surpasses that of the animal sacrifices required by Law. The obligation is that of a living sacrifice—a life dedicated to the service of God—a life committed to doing God’s will—a life lived in faith and lived out in faithfulness. We come across the words ‘conformed’ and ‘transformed’ in Paul’s exhortation. Being “conformed to this world” is like being a feather blown by the wind, it goes wherever the wind takes it. Such a person easily embraces the ways of the world. However, being “transformed,” involves transformation at the core of one’s being. Paul is calling us not to be caught up in every fad or luxury but instead to let the Spirit transform us at our core so that we can have a faith strong enough to remain true to our values. The readings today invite us to introspect about where are we in our life. Are we conforming to the ways and demands of the world or are we being transformed by the Spirit of the Lord? The renewing of our minds enables us to “discern the will of God”. We often try to force God to act the way we want Him to. If we are to discern God’s will, we have to allow the Spirit to renew our thinking and allow God to shape our thinking and our lives.

In the gospel narrative today, the first part is about Jesus reprimanding Peter for his earthly view of a political messiah who would triumph over Roman rule. In the second part, I was drawn to the sentence ‘For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it’. I remember back in the time when I was working in the corporate sector, there was this sense of wanting to be successful, of wanting to earn more money, getting a promotion, trying out new things, going on fancy holidays, buying new gadgets etc. till one day a realization hit me -what after this? Is this what life is meant to be? I was trying to save my life by pursuing luxuries and comforts but little did I realize that I was losing my purpose in life. In my interactions with people, I often see many of them running in their life behind something or the other and in the bargain they lose out on their family life and their health and when they think it is a time to sit back and enjoy unfortunately there is not much left. We lose our health in search of wealth and then lose our wealth in search of health. Denying oneself is the ability to see beyond one’s desires, likes and pleasures. Can we see the life in abundance that awaits us if we are willing to embrace the crosses in our lives and follow Jesus instead of following the stars of the world? The gospel challenges us to ask ourselves what is the purpose of our life and what truly gives us fulfilment. I pray that the answers to these questions may transform us from within and like the prophet Jeremiah continue fighting our battles by placing our trust in God alone. Take care and God bless!