You Duped Me, Lord

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

“You duped me, Lord.” You duped me, Lord. How’s that for a nice scripture? As scripture says, you duped me, Lord. Isn’t that kind of contradictory? The word of God saying, you duped me, Lord. And it’s not just some fool, some sinner, some wicked person saying that. It’s one of the greatest prophets of all time, Jeremiah, who’s saying, you duped Lord. It’s surprising, shocking, maybe to hear that language. But it’s the word of God, which is showing us to have this frankness that Jeremiah had, in his suffering. I don’t know exactly what Jeremiah, all that Jeremiah meant. But what often happens in a spiritual journey is that the Lord gives us certain graces, to help us begin a journey with Him. Because it’s not easy, so He gives us grace as constellations, lights to do that. And we think that it’s going to be like that the whole way. And then it becomes very different. It can become very difficult, and those graces just seem to disappear. And we can feel betrayed by the Lord, because we were expecting something so much better. And it seems just the opposite.  Jeremiah will be talking a little bit about that he can have a lot of difficulties. But one of the things that this very word you duped me, Lord, paradoxically, it’s a sign of the authenticity of God’s word, that He doesn’t try to paint everything as a rosy picture. He’s saying very clearly, the struggles that those who are faithful to Him like Jeremiah, experience, even a struggle, a feeling that they had been duped by the Lord. And so this is an example of how surprising, even shocking the word of God can be. And I want to look at three examples of that just in the readings today, one in Jeremiah, and then the gospel, and then also with St. Paul, because this shows the conflict between God’s words and our human ways. Our human ideas, make sense to us, they seem much better to us. But unfortunately, they often end in disaster, and even hell. And God’s ways seem harder. And we don’t understand them. But they lead to the fullness of the beatitude of joy. And so these words that we’re going to be looking at are actually anti- duping words, anti-duping words, which are speaking very strongly and clearly. So the first one is this example we have from Jeremiah. And Jeremiah has, some people have called him, the most Christ like, of all the persons that we see in the Old Testament, He was about 20 years old, when he was called by the Lord. So a young man, when he’s called, there’s a lot of corruption in his society, even in the temple. And so he was called to denounce that. And apparently, his personality or he has a very sensitive personality. So this is not an easy thing for him to do. And at the situation at that time, was the Babylonian Empire under the King Nebuchadnezzar was growing stronger and stronger. But Judah, were a lot of the people in Judah around in Jerusalem and around Jerusalem, were tempted to revolt against the power of Babylonia. And Jeremiah tries to warn them, don’t do that, there’ll be a disaster. And some of the people think, well, we’re gonna make an alliance with Egypt. And then that way we can revolt against, Jeremiah says, Don’t do that. You know, oftentimes, we think your prophets as calling us to do crazy things. But Jeremiah here, is telling them to do the most prudent thing. What was clear, the most prudent but it wasn’t what people wanted to hear. And then there were false Prophets, saying, there were false prophets telling people what they wanted to hear. And so Jeremiah is rejected by almost every one of the people, the priests, the kings. He was considered a defeatist. And so he was persecuted in prison, and even people are plotting to kill him. And so that’s the suffering that we hear in this reading today. He says, “You duped me Lord, and I let myself be duped. You are too strong for me and you triumphed, and all the day I am an object of laughter. Everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I must cry out violence and outrage is my message. The word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach all the day. I say to myself, I will not mention Him, I will speak in His name no longer.” So he’s trying, it’s been so painful that he’s trying to resist doing it. But then he says, “but then it becomes like a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones, I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.” So he doesn’t want to say the word of God because the consequences are too painful. But it’s like you can’t resist it. So the consequences are, they didn’t listen to Jeremiah, Judah revolted against Babylonia. And so in 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar captures Jerusalem for the first time, and sends many of the prominent members into exile. And so what do, mainly people do? A few years later, they decide, we gotta throw off the Babylonian yoke. And Jeremiah says, “Don’t do that. I told you the first time don’t do that, don’t do that. Instead what we need is conversion, not not throwing off the Babylonian yoke.” They don’t listen to him again. And so 10 years later, in 587, Nebuchadnezzar comes again, captures Jerusalem. And this time, the consequences are even worse, the temple is destroyed. This magnificent temple that Solomon had built, is completely destroyed, and many more people are led into exile, and thus begins the great exile of the people of Judah. And so now they are in exile. And they are humiliated in this extreme pain. And they begin to reflect, and they begin to repent. And they begin to reconsider what Jeremiah had been telling them. And there, then they begin to finally appreciate what he had been telling them, and realizing that he was calling in to the fidelity to the Lord. And so they that’s when the appreciation, much of it after his death began for Jeremiah’s words. And then there’s an interesting passage, and this happens a few centuries later, once the people had come back to their land, and now this is a different situation, because now the Greek powers are trying to change their religion, calling them to adopt the new religion and abandon their old religion which Babylonia hadn’t been doing. And so this is the Maccabean revolt. And then, during the Maccabean revolt, there is one point, at a critical point, it says, this is in Second Maccabees, “a man appeared”, so a vision or an apparition, “distinguished by his gray hair and dignity, and of marvelous majesty and authority. And a voice spoke saying, this is a man who loves the brethren, and prays much for that people in the holy city.” So who is that man? It says, “Jeremiah, the prophet of God.” This is a man who loves the brethren and prays much for the people in the holy city, Jeremiah, the prophet of God, “Jeremiah stretched out his right hand, and gave to Judas, Judas Maccabeus, who was leading the revolt, a golden sword. And as he gave it, he addressed him thus, take this holy sword, a gift from God, with which you will strike down your adversaries.” So, the same Jeremiah, who had been by God’s order, telling them not to revolt against Babylon is encouraging and helping now, Judas Maccabaeus in this revolt against a religious oppression which will try to change the religion. So that’s a passage, that’s from Jeremiah Jeremiah, who has this shocking words. And we also have an example of surprising shocking words in this Gospel. When we were speaking about this last week, where Jesus says, “Get behind me satan. You are an obstacle to me.” And he’s saying that to Peter, right after he’s just proclaimed Peter, the head of the Church on the rock on which He will build His church. But then when Peter is and he says why, “because you are not thinking as God does, but as man does.” That’s the temptation for all of us, there was a temptation for Peter. And it’s always a temptation for the pastor of the Church, it’s very much a temptation in the Church. And as we like, prepare now for the Synod, there’s going to be a synod in next month. And there’s a lot of voices who are, who are speaking words, which are much more than words of men, rather than God. And Jesus has pointed out that behind those man the words of man is, is that is the presence of satan. Peter didn’t realize that. But that’s what Jesus reveals. The word seem very loving and compassionate. What Peter was saying, seems much more compassionate, saying no Lord you shouldn’t suffer like that. What would have happened if Jesus had listened to it, He would have missed His own mission, which is to save our souls.  And so the human way seems more compassionate, satan often presents ways that seem more compassionate and makes more sense to us. But are according to man’s ways according often to evil ways, and which are obstacles to the salvation that God wants to share. And so Jesus words are shocking, what Jesus said, what he was announcing was shocking. And when Peter responded, it was even more shocking how Jesus rebuked him. And then a third example, of shocking words, of the shocking word of God we have from St. Paul, St. Paul, this is Romans 12 says, and this is also very important for our world today. He says, “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” I read that once again. And we have a good opportunity to present our bodies as a sacrifice in this heat as we celebrate this Mass. “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a spirit as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” So St. Paul is presenting a revolutionary way, in this pagan culture that is living in the pagan Greek culture, which had made an idol of the bodies of a strong, beautiful body. And he’s presenting the body in a completely new way, not as an idol, but as an opportunity for a sacrifice. And so all the things that, you know, when our body doesn’t look the way we want it to look, or when we want to get sick, or when it gets, you know, when we experience aches in our bodies, and we experienced the limits of our bodies, then, and you know, that that’s very much, this whole issue is a very much an issue today, you know, with this, the with the whole trans, the whole trans movement, people feeling very dissatisfied with their body, even dissatisfied, that they, that they’re a man or a woman. And so this is very, this light, which is very much for our time, and then even more it when our body dies. And so St. Paul is showing that even death takes on a whole new significance, not as something that is useless, or a failure, or the ultimate defeat of our body. But death can become the ultimate sacrifice, the culmination of the body as a sacrifice. And when it does that, it becomes a victory. Not a defeat, but a victory. Just as Jesus on the cross is not living in His body a defeat but is really achieving the combination of the sacrifice of His body, the great victory. And so this, think of this how much how revolutionary this is. Think of the stars that our society worships in the movies and so forth, it’s the people have beautiful bodies, beautiful, impressive bodies. And the real stars, the real superheroes, when what St. Paul is presenting, are those who have made a sacrifice with their body, a living sacrifice. And so many of the persons whose bodies might be the most limited, the most suffering, or can be those who are actually, that the great heroes, because those who are most intensely living their body as a sacrifice, sometimes a daily sacrifice, sometimes a sacrifice that is an hourly, sometimes a minute-by-minute sacrifice. So St. Paul’s presented the body as a sacrifice. And at another point he speaks about as a temple, something that we need to care for, because it becomes a holy dwelling of God. And so think how revolutionary that is, to the spirit, which we still see in our pagan spirit, worldly spirit today. And then St. Paul goes on to say, “do not be conformed to this world.” Do not be conformed to this world. I mean, think for instance, of fashion. What is fashion about? It’s being conformed to this world.  This is the fashion right now, this is the style right now. So what should you do that so what the message is, so this is what you should do, because this is the style right now. This is the way people dress, this the way people talk, this way they cut their hair, these are the shoes that are so forth. So they’re saying, because the message is basically be conformed to this world. And so St. Paul’s, that’s why it’s so shocking and saying the opposite. Do not be conformed to this world. So what is he proposing instead? He says, but be transformed, not conformed, but transformed by the renewal of your mind. “That you may know what is the will of God, what is good, and acceptable and perfect.” So he’s offering a very different, very different model. Not the model of the models, you know, in advertisements and so forth, but being guided by the will of God, which doesn’t, God’s will is not always changing. I mean, the specific points of God’s will change, but the essence of God’s will, remains. And so see how different that is? Well, just to give you one example, today, many people see it as completely normal to sleep together, before marriage, in fact, to sleep together without any idea of marriage, in fact, to sleep together, even just in the first and maybe only encounter, hooking up, which is a word we don’t hear very often today, which is fornication. It doesn’t sound very enticing, fornication has become just that normal. That’s the way I mean, you see all over the place, like in TV and so forth. It’s just the normal thing, just a normal thing to do. And so, but is it the will of God? So it certainly is conformed to this world, but is it the will of God? And see how much of a difference that makes for a relationship. If the relationship conforms to the world, then that’s just a normal thing to do. That’s just the way things are done these days. But if a relationship is according to the will of God, then it has a divine light, and in the human and so just so to avoid fornication. We need, and this is another term and another traditional term, we need to avoid also the near occasion of sin. Because if we put ourselves in a situation, certain situations that are near occasions of sin, it’s very easy to sin, if we put ourselves in that situation. And so this is truly a transformation that St. Paul is talking about, true transformation of our mind, of our whole way of understanding by being guided by the will of God. And what is the difference? We know that the human way, it’s starts very enticing. It’s very pleasurable, it’s very delightful. It’s very intense. But how often does it end in extreme bitterness, and pain, and even hatred. And so the path that St. Paul is calling us from the Lord is a demanding path, that it starts hard, because those sacrifices are hard. But it leads to a true union, and a union that can last forever. And so these are three examples with Jeremiah, with the gospel of Jesus to Peter, and St. Paul, of how shocking, how surprising the word of God can be. And so the word of God then comes the path can seem too difficult. And that’s why Jesus calls us to trust, to trust in His grace that we don’t have to do this by ourselves, but to trust in His grace to help us. “My grace is made perfect in weakness,” and also to trust in His mercy when we fall, in His mercy to forgive us. The Psalm today said, “My soul is thirsting for you, oh, Lord, my God. You are my help.” That is I don’t do it by myself. “You are my help. And in the shadow of your wings, I shout for joy. My soul clings fast to you. Your right hand upholds me. It’s you give me the grace, the strength to do this.” And so in this Mass with our Blessed Mother, let us humbly ask for this grace to receive the Word of God and trust in Him. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Jerimiah 20:7-9
Matthew 16:21-27
Romans 12:1-12