Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
In the readings for today we see a parallel drawn between Jeremiah and Jesus. For both Jeremiah and Jesus, some key people found their teachings too difficult to accept. In Jeremiah’s case, the priests and prophets called for him to be put to death for speaking what God had told him to say. In Jesus’ case, we are told that it was those from his home town who found it most difficult to accept him as a prophet. There is really nothing surprising in this reaction to Jesus. Often it is the people who think they know us best who are the ones that have the strongest preconceptions about who we are and what we are capable (or not capable) of doing. Following the will of God might involve breaking with such expectations. I’m reminded here of the numerous saints – including Thomas Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, Ignatius Loyola, and Teresa of Avila – who felt the need to separate themselves from the expectations that their families had set for them in order to follow a call they had received from God.
At issue in the reading from Matthew is our ability, as Christians, to recognize and embrace the word and will of God when it comes to us in ways that are unexpected. Jesus reminds us that our sense of familiarity with our religion and the comfort we take in the order of everyday existence can be a barrier to our following Jesus. While order and stability are often important in helping us to live a faithful life, we can often become so accustomed to our daily lives that we do not allow God to break in and change us – to take us in a different direction than we have been going – to set us on a different course.
There is an important respect in which it remains difficult to accept the will of God. The readings for today show us that accepting God’s will and living in accord with it can bring the contempt of others – even many who are close to us – just as it did for Jeremiah and Jesus. So we need to be prepared for this potential response. Yet in another respect it is easier for us than those in Jesus’ home town to recognize and accept Jesus.
We have the advantage of the witness of many generations of Christians about who Jesus is, and we know that our task, as Christians, is to follow him. By participating in the sacramental life of the Church we can live out this calling. To do so is to open ourselves up to doing the will of God. There is no easy answer to the question of what God’s will is for each of us living out our faith on a daily basis. Yet Jesus himself showed us in the way that he lived and in his teachings how to begin to discern God’s will for our lives.
- Joel Schickel