In our first reading from the prophet Jeremiah, he tells us quite plainly where we need to place our faith, trust, and hope. He is adamant that it should be placed in God alone, and certainly not in man. For it is only through God that we can have the assurance of our faith being well-founded and always in He who will never waiver in his taking care of us. We will truly always be as richly provided for as if we are always able to drink from an ever-flowing stream. It is when we make the mistake of trusting too much in man and forgetting about where our true allegiance and hope lie, that we run into problems, disappointment, and perhaps ruin. I find this to be especially true when someone places too much of what they perceive as their faith and sense of belonging to the Church in the conduct of those around them, and not nearly enough focus and trust in God who is (or perhaps should be) the main reason for them being there. It is a dangerous thing when we focus more on church culture, and not enough on being part of the body of Christ solely because we want to be in union with Him.
The call to truly be part of the body of Christ in a deeply meaningful way is a difficult one. It is fraught with a lack of acceptance by others because, for the most part, this world does not want to hear Christ’s message – not really. They may like the idea of a convenient source of pleasant sentiment during the holidays, or perhaps a safety net to have handy for when times get tough enough that they feel like they need help, and then as a last resort turn to prayer, but in the end, it is a relationship and shallow attempt at belief based on convenience. That is not at all what we are called to. We are called to come to our Lord every single day with the intention of submitting our time, energy, and talents to be used to their fullest for His glory. We are called to take the harder path of putting aside the praise of others as a trivial thing, and instead, follow a path of truth, and proclaim that same truth boldly to those around us in our actions and words. It is quite true, we will often be hated for this, we will be ridiculed, labeled as radicals, or intolerant, or hateful. We need to be fine with being radically for Christ and his teachings, we need to be intolerant of half-truths, outright lies, moral aberrations, and the oh so easy relativism that we are being called to in order to be an acceptable part of society. The reality is that when we slip into any of this, then we are being truly hateful, rather than demonstrating love for our brothers and sisters by having the fortitude to tell them what they need to hear, and the societal consequences be damned. We need to live in the best tradition of the prophets and seek our own salvation as well as that of others and fully accept the temporary estrangement and lack of acceptance that every single one of them experienced. We are called to be different, and our Lord tells us quite plainly that if we are content with the acceptance of others in this life, we are accepting the same rewards as the false prophets of old. We need to be so focused on God, that the opinions of others are trivial to us, and we instead live our lives by God’s law, rather than slip into the lies and fatal pleasantries of this age.
The Deacons Bench 