Cross Over the Bridge or Stay Put . . . 12th Sunday Ordinary Time, June 25
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12th Sunday Ordinary Time - June 25th, 2023 (Click Here for Readings)
Picture yourself knowing in advance the time of the 9/11 attacks and prophesying the outcome as widely as you could back then. Jeremiah was faced with a similar mission to proclaim the loss of the Jews’ homeland if they didn’t stop their dependence on false Gods and return their loyalty to Yahweh.
Though he seemed to have friends, many were merely flattering to his face; back slappers plotting to trip him in the same way the Jews tried to do with Jesus. They hated his style of preaching. His rage and emotion made them uncomfortable. Blunt and outspoken, he tried to suppress his preaching but couldn’t, and nothing was more painful for him than to be silenced. He was a prototype of the suffering Christ.
Though his heart burned to preach, he didn’t really feel qualified and was tempted to quarrel with God for assigning him this task. Though he initially felt that God deceived him, his complaints then turned to silence and thanksgiving for the opportunity.
Jeremiah was alone. He trusted in the Lord and feared none of the people. To him and Jesus’ apostles in today’s Gospel, defending their souls to the wicked was far more important than the consequences of ridicule or even bodily harm. Bringing the sins of others to the surface, calling them on their misdeeds and bringing the dark into the light was a risk to their reputation and their lives. But as Jesus told them in the beginning, expect persecution.
What These Challenges Mean To Us
Being a Catholic-Christian in today’s anti-Christian culture is not far removed from what Jeremiah and the apostles faced. Though persecution may not be as serious of a threat to us as it was to these men, our outspoken defense of our faith can often drop us down on the popularity list.
So most of us don’t invite challenges to our faith. We play it cool, understandably, because of the social consequences to ourselves and our loved ones. And though it may be easy to just roll with the crowd of part-time and no-time Christians, the stronger alternative is to become a loner with Christ; to cross over the bridge and live hidden with him in a far better world.
To embrace, embody and exemplify God’s precious word in all we think, say and do can in time have more people saying about you, “I don’t know what he or she has got, but I’d sure like to get some of it myself.”
We may not always see the results on others of the “Jesus inside us,” but we will be rewarded, protected and cared for like the sparrows Jesus refers to in today’s Gospel. Though we may run the risk of being more socially alone in our secular world, isn’t it better to know that God loves us so much as to count the hairs on our head and value us more than many sparrows?
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