August 31, 22nd Sunday in OT, Cycle A

Ah, poor Jeremiah! A man torn apart in his lifetime. Here, we see him cry out to God, wishing his fate might be other than it is, yet knowing he has to live out his destiny. And in the Gospel, Jesus, too, senses the pain involved in living out His Destiny. And, like us, Peter cries out, “NO!” He doesn’t like pain–for himself, or for Christ! (I don’t either; I hate pain! And, I’ll bet YOU don’t like it much, either.) But, Christ is adamant. There is a pain in living that can not be avoided. And, if one wants to live a kind and gentle life, the pain may be brutal. No wonder St. Paul asks us to make our lives a “sacrifice” to God. What we are to see is that Jeremiah, St. Paul and Jesus–all men who chose to live gently and kindly on the earth–doing good, and not returning evil for evil, but absorbing it, and transforming it into something gentler and peaceful–these men were NOT masochists, loving pain and sacrifice and agony. They merely point out that every life has it price. The price of a kind and gentle life looks high, from the outside looking in, but, in the end, it is probably the far, far better option. The price of shallowness and dissipation is truly tragic. So, this weekend we are asked to look at OUR lives, and make decisions. God bless.