22nd Sunday - Fr. Leo
Our first reading opens with a pious recognition of Jeremiah’s gift of prophesy. I love his opening line, “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.” This expresses his deep and profound passion for God’s truth. Though he would like to not be the prophet so that he wouldn’t be mocked and reproached, he can’t help himself because God’s truth burns within his heart, in the depths of his being, and he can’t hold it in, he must speak the truth of God.
Jeremiah was so close to God that God’s truth had become his own. His soul responded to God’s presence so that, more important than his own life, he could only do God’s will and not his own. I hope Jeremiah’s example will inspire us to pray and accept the same closeness to God that will lead is to live in “word and deed” the truth and love of God. The first line of today’s Psalm 63 gives us the perfect prayer; “O God, you are my God whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.”
St. Paul in our second reading encourages us to lose our life that we may live. To give up our will for the will of God whatever the cost to us. He calls us to live according to a mind formed in Christ and not run on the instinct of passions alone. This is why we pray always for the gift of the Spirit that we might discern God’s will and live the Truth he has planted in us. The same Truth that moved the heart of Jeremiah the prophet.
The Gospel from St. Matthew echoes the themes of our first two readings. Jesus is defining himself as the suffering Messiah and the disciples want nothing to do with that. They want a king who will deliver them from foreign domination. It was not easy for them to hear Jesus say, no way- to be faithful to God we must crucify our false desires and follow in the steps of the Holy Spirit.
Our Spiritual life nourished and inspired by prayer, scripture meditation, the sacraments and being part of a community of faith, is to help us come to know the Truth that is in us. Without self-discipline and seeking, with an open heart, the gifts of the Spirit, we will be blind to the love of God. As we journey into God, prayer by prayer, day by day, His truth planted in our being becomes our reason for being. All we do from that point becomes the loving presence of God attracting those around us to seek and find the same God within themselves. Our discipline, our deaths to the false self, become a source of resurrection for others. It is then that we live in the Holy Trinity and the Holy Trinity in us! For this gift let us pray with the psalmist, “My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.” Let us feel that deep in our hearts as it becomes the unsaid mantra of our deepest soul.