Readings: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Psalm 62 (63):2-6,8-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27
Picture: By Jake Charles on Unsplash
My dear friends, if given a choice, which do you think I’d rather sleep on, satin sheets or sandpaper? The answer is obvious, right? Satin, of course! Actually, to be honest, my preference for the slick and smooth over the rough and uncomfortable, extends beyond my choice of bedding to all other areas of my life. And yet, much as I dislike friction, I also know that it’s somehow necessary. For without friction, how will I start a fire? How will I keep my footsteps firm?
It’s helpful to keep this in mind, since we find a similar tension in our scriptures today. On the one hand, the prophet Jeremiah complains pitifully to God about the painful friction he is experiencing. His proclamation of God’s word to an unreceptive people has not only brought him insult and derision, it has even landed him in prison. Yet, despite the suffering it causes him, the prophet still can’t bring himself to stop preaching the word. A fire burning in his heart, a deep thirst for God, urges him on.
This experience of Jeremiah’s foreshadows that of Jesus. As we know, from his prayer later at Gethsemane (26:39), given a choice, Jesus would very much prefer to avoid the friction of the Cross. Yet he accepts it as necessary. Not in the sense that it can’t be avoided, because it can. He can run away. Or simply comply. But to do so would be to ignore that inner fire, which both energises his mission, and gives his whole life its purpose and meaning. Making it all but impossible for Jesus to walk uprightly before God and neighbour.
Much as both Jeremiah and Jesus dislike friction, they are led to embrace it as necessary. And can’t we say the same about those who wish to follow the Lord? Isn’t this what Jesus is teaching Peter, and all of us, in the gospel? That unless we’re willing to accept friction, we will not be able either to worship God, or to lay down our lives in service of our neighbour. Indeed, we will not even have the freedom to truly encounter those who are different from us, let alone discern how God wishes us to love them. Which is why the second reading is so useful. To find the courage to offer our living bodies as a holy sacrifice to God, we need to keep on recalling God’s mercy shown to us in Christ Jesus. As we are doing now, at this and every celebration of the Eucharist.
Fire, footsteps and freedom. These defining characteristics of every Christian life–even every truly human life–depend for their existence upon a willingness to accept friction. An important reminder for us, especially today. For it has been observed that the slick, spotless, smooth, and spick-and-span is the hallmark of our times. From our standards of beauty, to the shape of our gadgets, even to our seduction by pornography, we are taking our preference for smoothness to ever greater lengths. And yet, what good will it do us, to keep laying our bodies on satin, if our hearts can find no proper rest?
Sisters and brothers, how might we help one another to keep following the Lord ever more closely today?
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