The prophet Jeremiah in the first reading today was falsely accused of speaking to the soldiers and people in the city, not for their benefit, but to do them harm. A group of officials persuaded the king to put him to death for wishing the people harm, so they threw him in a cistern. There was no water in this well, just mud. Jeremiah sank into the mud and was left there to die. Can you imagine what an awful experience this was for Jeremiah, covered deeply in mud in such a dark, confined space? The king’s officials intended to leave him there to die of starvation. What a terrible way to suffer and die.
However, there was a member of the king’s court that recognized the truth in the words that the prophet Jeremiah spoke and believed him. This court official asked for the prophet Jeremiah to be brought up from the cistern before he died of starvation. The king granted his request. One can only imagine the emotions that the prophet Jeremiah felt, lying near death, forgotten in the darkness and mud of the cistern and then seeing men come to rescue him from certain death. His gratitude to these men and to God must have been profound, but what was even more profound was the fact the court official had recognized the truth in his words when he heard them. Just when things looked the worse, God’s light began to shine inside the heart of this member of the king’s court and it led to Jeremiah’s freedom.
The second reading talks about the opposition, persecutions and suffering that Jesus went through. We can expect no less if we want to follow the Lord. Just when our own trials and sufferings seem unbearable and that we can not endure them, we should persevere for the long term in our faith anyway, keeping in mind that we will never suffer as much as Jesus did. God gives us trials, oppositions and sufferings sometimes so that we will become better people, but also that His will may be known to others. We give testimony to God the most when it is the most difficult to do so.
Love is born through suffering. We endure a lot of suffering in our lives sometimes and wonder why we don’t see the good that is supposed to come from it. We pray and pray and pray and yet, God doesn’t seem to hear our prayers. Nothing seems to change and we get discouraged. Maybe some of our loved ones or friends have not experienced a conversion of the heart or a return to practicing our faith, for an example. We have talked to them, set a good example by our lives and pray for them regularly, yet they continue in their ways and do not turn to the Lord Jesus and set things right in their lives. We should remember though, that we may not ever see the results of our prayers, our words and the good example we set in our lifetime. Jesus didn’t in his lifetime either. He died with many people rejecting his words and it seemed that Satan had triumphed when he was crucified. It was only after Jesus’ death that many came to believe he really was the son of God. The centurion who looked upon Christ’s body after his death said “Truly, this was the son of God.” Mt 27:54
In the gospel today Jesus said “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”. He goes on to say “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” He said that family members will be divided against one another. A lot of people feel really badly about the arguments they have in the normal course of family life. They feel ashamed and that maybe they do not have a good marriage, or good relationship with their children because of the arguments. We may think that “good Catholic families” love each other and do not experience this negativity, but that is not the case. Without conflict, evil triumphs. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. This is why Jesus said that he did not come to establish peace, but division. Without resistance – disbelief, selfishness and evil will prevail. Our resistance to evil is crucial to bringing God’s kingdom into our world.
When we put up a resistance to what is evil, or the lack of a belief in God, it causes others to at least think about it, like the court official did in today’s first reading for mass. The court official probably didn’t immediately come to recognize and understand the truth in the words in the prophet Jeremiah’s words either. It was only later, after the all the conflicts were died down that the truth may have come to light in his soul and he changed because of it.
The truth comes out during conflicts with our family and friends. Even if they seem to reject our words during an argument, later the truth may sink in and they realize that what you said was the truth. It is then, that conversion can take place later in the quiet moments, when the Holy Spirit comes and reveals Himself in the stillness of a person’s heart.
