Jeremiah 38:4-6,8-10; Psalms 39 (40); Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53
Fear of the Truth
Dear friends, today is the twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time. The theme I chose for today’s readings is “Fear of the Truth.” After many years of ministering, I have come to realize that many people are afraid to face the truth. This is because knowing the truth unsettles people from their comfort zones and demands transformation. Therefore, many chose not to hear it at all. I also realized that people want us to tell them what they want to hear, even if it is not the truth.
One day, I was invited to lead prayers at a gathering of a socio-political nature, which brought together people from all faiths and walks of life in the village and the surrounding villages. As is my behaviour, when I get such a chance, I exploit it to the maximum. So, I decided to prepare my spiritual intervention in three parts. The first part was to read a carefully selected passage from the Bible; the second part was to educate the gathering about some pertinent matters that would perhaps help them; and the third part was to pray over the leaders.
So I started with the Bible passage, and everyone was quiet and still. When I started talking about matters that called for a change in the status quo in the way things were done in the village, I started hearing murmurs that graduated to noise. Immediately, I realized that I could not continue to say those things. I felt very heavy in my heart. So, I decided to end the second part prematurely and finish with the last part, planning to leave the scene thereafter. However, another thought told me to remain for a while and see what else was in the program. What followed is a story for another day. Anyway, after a long while, I decided to leave. On my way back, I remembered the prophet Jeremiah’s ordeal and got some measure of consolation from it.
Many Christians today also prefer to hear a gospel that is sweet to their ears rather than one that calls out evil in society. They prefer ‘the Gospel that is sweet to hear, that of quick prosperity.” Realizing that people are afraid of true conversion, many preachers have come up with alternative “gospel products” customized for different audiences. Different from the olden days, when faith was streamlined and there were very few options available, today we have a supermarket of Gospel products according to one’s preferences. This has turned the gospel into a commodity that comes with different tastes, sizes, colours, and prices.
In the first reading, the people are now tired and sick of the prophet Jeremiah, who does not stop pulling the rug out from under their feet. They decided to kill him and stop his continuous cries of doom, even though it is indeed looming. They would rather die in their denial than listen to the uncomfortable summons by the prophet. King Zedekiah saved him this time, but eventually, the people managed to eliminate Jeremiah. The crime of Jeremiah was telling the people that they would perish soon unless they changed their ways and turned back to God. The descendants of these people continued to treat prophets similarly. Finally, they did the same to Jesus. Today, it seems that we have their descendants still in our communities. Are you one of them?
In the Gospel, we hear that Jesus came to break the past conformist type of Gospel and reconstruct human morality. He came to lay a new foundation of human morality. If a building is sitting on a weak foundation, no matter how much one spends on trying to support it, one day it will collapse under its own weight. The cost of repairs can be very high. The best thing to do, though undesirable to many, is to pull down the entire building and reconstruct a new one on a firm foundation. The Chuch is the new community whose foundation is Christ Himself. Therefore, we can say with certainty that faith is thicker than blood. As Christians, we are called to reconstruct our lives on this firm foundation.
To do that, St. Paul tells us that we must throw away all that hinders us, especially the sins that cling to us so easily. We must endure the discomforts and opposition of the Gospel if we want to find the imperishable riches of the Kingdom of God. Those who are tasked with the responsibility of teaching the truth must do so with faithfulness. They are not to conform to what the people want to hear. The words of Archbishop Isaac Amani of the Archdiocese of Arusha put this into perspective: “We must teach the people to strive to be like Jesus and not teach Jesus to be like the people.”
Dear friends, as we break the busy schedule of our lives to honour and worship our Creator, let us evaluate our preferences. Are you moved by the Word of God to amend your life, or do you prefer to hear only what “massages your ego”?
Fr. Lawrence Muthee, SVD
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