Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s first reading from the prophet Jeremiah tells the story of a sort of prophecy competition between Hananiah and Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s message to the people has consistently been a negative one, warning the people of suffering. Hananiah, meanwhile, promises peace to the people, and the recovery of their own self-government. Jeremiah desires this as much as any other person of Israel would do. But Jeremiah does not think it is necessarily realistic, especially because the people have not repented as they ought to have done in their situation. It’s easy to see that Hananiah would have been a more popular prophet than Jeremiah. Who wants to hear about death, destruction, woe, and misery when you can look forward instead to a brighter future of freedom, peace, and prosperity? Jeremiah, then, represents what the people don’t want to hear.
Jesus’ own popularity as represented in this section of Matthew seems great; apparently people want to hear what he has to say. Crowds have been following him around, and he has reached out to them by preaching, healing, and today he even feeds the multitude of people. But let us not think that Jesus’ entire ministry was marked by popularity. Even after this miracle of the loaves and fishes, people continued to doubt that he was the Messiah. And while they were eager for Jesus’ miracles, they were not always eager to accept the radical change of life for which he called. Like the people listening to Hananiah and Jeremiah, they preferred a prediction of peace to a call to repentance.
We might find ourselves in a similar situation. We’d like to think that everyone goes to heaven, regardless of their life on earth. We’d like to think that we’re going to heaven, regardless. We’d prefer to think that God is here to serve our needs and to make our life easy. In other words, we’d rather see God’s presence as a comfort than as a challenge. And certainly, God’s presence should be a comfort, as was this miracle of the loaves and fishes. As believing and practicing Christians we have good reason to hope that God will provide for us, and all will be well. But we cannot rest in a sort of Christian complacency wherein we assume everything has been done and will be done for us regardless of how we choose to live. We are not God’s spoiled children. Rather, as our good Father, God wants us to become better and holier people – for our own sake.
The challenge of the message is what makes a prophet a prophet. Unlike Hananiah’s predictions, the message of a true prophet is challenging. As a prophet, Jesus challenges us to keep our belief consistent, and to keep our actions consonant with that faith. So too are we called to accept the challenges of the Christian life, even when it involves suffering and difficulty or just downright failure. In other words, we are called to want to hear that which we do not want to hear. Let us pray that we can seek out the wisdom of others in our community not merely because they will confirm us in what we want to think or do, but because they will challenge us to live our faith more fully.
Let us be willing to hear what we do not want to hear, and let us grow even to desire to hear that which we might rather ignore.
- Maria Morrow