Daily Retreat 03/11/09
2009 Mar 11 Wed: Lenten Weekday
Jer 18: 18-20/ Ps 30(31): 5-6. 14. 15-16/ Mt 20: 17-28
From today’s readings: “Heed me, O LORD, and listen to what my adversaries say. Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life?... You will free me from the snare they set for me, for You are my refuge. Into Your hands I commend my spirit; You will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.... Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”
The Price of Faithful Prophecy
Jeremiah was perhaps the most unpopular of all the prophets - his unrelenting call to repentance and warnings about the inevitably disastrous consequences of evil choices caused the people and princes to hate him and frame him as an insurgent killjoy. Time and time again, Jeremiah finds himself a hunted man, and why? Simply because he faithfully lived up to his God-given vocation to serve as a prophet! Justifiably upset at the persecution he’s suffered as a result of his faithfulness, he complains, “Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life?”
Faithfully carrying out God’s will in our lives is always a challenge, particularly when the good we do unto others is, at times, repaid with evil. At such moments, you and I need to follow Jeremiah’s example as he turned to God and poured his heart out in prayer! The God-given mission of bringing the Good News to a weary, sinful world is not to be called off simply because the Message and messengers are not received with open arms. In fact, God sends His most faithful agents to situations where He knows they will be confronted with ingratitude, indifference, rejection, and opposition, because it is the people with such attitudes that stand most in need of the transforming power of the Gospel!
Jer 18: 18-20/ Ps 30(31): 5-6. 14. 15-16/ Mt 20: 17-28
From today’s readings: “Heed me, O LORD, and listen to what my adversaries say. Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life?... You will free me from the snare they set for me, for You are my refuge. Into Your hands I commend my spirit; You will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.... Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”
The Price of Faithful Prophecy
Jeremiah was perhaps the most unpopular of all the prophets - his unrelenting call to repentance and warnings about the inevitably disastrous consequences of evil choices caused the people and princes to hate him and frame him as an insurgent killjoy. Time and time again, Jeremiah finds himself a hunted man, and why? Simply because he faithfully lived up to his God-given vocation to serve as a prophet! Justifiably upset at the persecution he’s suffered as a result of his faithfulness, he complains, “Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life?”
Faithfully carrying out God’s will in our lives is always a challenge, particularly when the good we do unto others is, at times, repaid with evil. At such moments, you and I need to follow Jeremiah’s example as he turned to God and poured his heart out in prayer! The God-given mission of bringing the Good News to a weary, sinful world is not to be called off simply because the Message and messengers are not received with open arms. In fact, God sends His most faithful agents to situations where He knows they will be confronted with ingratitude, indifference, rejection, and opposition, because it is the people with such attitudes that stand most in need of the transforming power of the Gospel!
posted by FrPitstick | 3/10/2009
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