Readings: Jeremiah 20: 7-9; Ps 34 (33): 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11; 1 Corinthians 10: 31 – 11: 1; Luke 14: 25-33
Picture: By Amol Tyagi on Unsplash
My dear friends, what does a key look like? I’m not sure if you’ll agree, but isn’t the safest answer to this question, it depends? That’s because keys are made to open locks, and locks come in different forms. A hole in a door requires the turning of a metal rod. A touchpad, the swipe of a plastic card. A scanner, the imprint of a finger, or the flash of an eye. A keypad, the pushing of a series of symbols. And then there are also locks that are not physical but intellectual. Such as a code or a puzzle. Which is what we find in our scriptures today. Each of the readings contains something like a puzzle, requiring the right key, for access to deeper understanding.
In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah is suffering terribly. His proclamation of God’s message has resulted in him being rejected and mocked, persecuted and thrown into prison. As he ponders his own sad plight, Jeremiah cannot help but complain to God for deceiving him. By promising to protect and care for him (eg, 1:8), God had enticed him to accept his prophetic mission. And yet, now that Jeremiah is in trouble, God seems to have forsaken him. Which brings us to the puzzle. To escape his sufferings, all the prophet has to do is renounce his message, forsake his mission. So why doesn’t he do that, especially now that he has already seen through God’s deception? Why does the prophet persist in his folly? Jeremiah himself provides the key to the puzzle. (W)ithin me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. Like a raging flame that refuses to be quenched, God’s word sustains the prophet in his mission, even in the face of stiff opposition from others, and apparent abandonment by God. The prophet’s experience of God’s word is the key to the puzzle.
In the second reading too, we find something like a puzzle. On the one hand, St Paul claims to do everything for the glory of God. But, on the other hand, he also says that he tries to please everyone in everything he does. How to reconcile these two claims? For one thing, don’t we all know from experience, how exhausting, and even pointless and foolish, it is to try to please everybody? Not just in school and at work, but even back at home, and here in church? Also, as it was for Jeremiah, isn’t it true that God’s wishes often conflict with what many people want? So how can Paul both glorify God, and please everyone, at the same time? Again, the reading itself provides the key to the puzzle, specifically in the last two lines. First, Paul gives us a clearer idea of what he means, when he adds that he tries to please everyone, so that they may be saved. His aim is not to satisfy superficial cravings, but to help others attain salvation, the fullness of life. Which is what Jesus came among us to accomplish, and why the reading ends with Paul inviting his readers to (b)e imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Christ, who came among us both to glorify God, and to save everyone. Christ, the Word-of-God-Made-Flesh, he is the key to the puzzle.
And the same goes for the gospel. We all know that the Ten Commandments require us to honour our parents (Ex 20:12). And Jesus himself said he came not to abolish, but to fulfil the law and the prophets (Mt 5:17). So how can the Lord require his followers to hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters… and even life itself? Beyond trying to explain this apparent contradiction in theory, don’t we need to consider how the Lord himself lived it in practice? How, by his Life, Death and Resurrection, Jesus showed us what it looks like to love God in everyone, and everyone in God, even to the point of accepting death on a cross? And to appreciate what this might look like in our own lives, along with Jeremiah and Paul and Jesus himself, don’t we have to keep allowing the Word of God to burn ever more brightly in our own hearts? As we are invited to do every time we gather for the Eucharist? Again, Christ, the Word-of-God-Made-Flesh, is the key to the puzzle.
Christ is the key, not just to the readings, but to the lives of the prophet, the apostle, and all who seek to follow the Lord, including our patron, St Ignatius. For it is said that, despite opposition from various very important people, Ignatius insisted on naming his religious order not after himself, but after Jesus. Why, if not because Ignatius wanted not just his own personal life, but also the corporate life of the least society he cofounded to be shaped around the Word-of-God-Made-Flesh? He wanted Jesus to be the key to everything. Which shows us that it’s not just the case that keys need to be fitted to locks. Especially when the key is Jesus, locks too need to be continually shaped to better receive the Key.
Sisters and brothers, as we joyously celebrate yet another parish feast-day, what must we do to keep allowing the Lord to shape our hearts and our lives, our families and our communities around none but him, today and everyday?
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