In our readings this week, we hear much of conscious choice to yield our own desires to those of God. This is not always an easy thing to do. We are used to pursuing our own plans and designs, but there comes a time when we need to gain perspective about where those plans and designs really fall in the grand scheme of things, and do they in any way impede us from following God’s call to serve Him?
The prophet Jeremiah was reluctant indeed to continue to speak Gods word to the people because of all the mockery he endured, and even speaks of being duped or tricked by the Lord into doing so. Yet he knows there is no backing away from speaking what he knows to be right because it is the word that comes from God and as he describes it, burns within him. He simply cannot hold back.
Saint Paul also speaks to us of sacrifice, and of living our lives in such a way that is pleasing to God. He tells us that we must not conform ourselves to this age, but rather look at what is timeless in its wisdom and value. To pursue Gods call, even when the world tries to constantly drag us in the opposite direction by trying to convince us that God is an outdated concept. To renew ourselves in such a way that we dismiss what is of human value, and instead cling to what is value to God. In every age, there have been forces that tried to draw Gods people away from Him, I sometimes wonder what Saint Paul would have to say if he saw how much that effort seems to have increased in our world today.
In our Gospel today, the call to think as God does, and not as humans do, is once again echoed. This time it is the words of our Lord himself in his rebuke to Peter when He tells him of what is to come. Peters’ reaction is a very human one, he does not wish any harm to come to Jesus whom he loves and has grown ever closer to over the years they and the other disciples have spent traveling and living together. I can honestly understand his feelings of wanting to be protective of someone he cares so deeply about. Yet, this is still a human response, and one that is in direct opposition to what Jesus knows needs to be accomplished, and so His rebuke is sharp. It is not to be unkind but rather to give Peter a sense of perspective in how human desires, not matter how seemingly caring and right, do not always align with Gods plan, or with the truths that need to be expressed. He tells Peter, and us, that our lives and cares in this world are completely secondary to the plan that is known only to God, and that each of us must come to realize how subservient our designs and cares must be in relation to Gods plan. This can be tremendously hard to keep in mind sometimes because much of what we feel is important seems so justifiable to us. Yet we must always be vigilantly humble enough to trust not in ourselves, but in His timeless word and plan.
The Deacons Bench 