Jeremiah was a great struggler. He struggled with being a prophet because he correctly foresaw that this would mean a life of suffering and difficulty for him. He was right. However, I think if we answer the question honestly, there is at least an element of suffering in each of our lives. There is no path of life that will not have to embrace suffering somewhere. Yes, some suffer more than others and there seems to be little explanation we can give for this fact. However, we must learn to entrust ourselves to the grace of God and believe that He will provide us with all that we need to remain faithful to Him whatever our experience of life may be.
By definition, being a prophet means one is going to stand out from the crowd and this will invite criticism from the rest of the people. In essence, to follow Jesus as His disciple is to be a prophet and so we must be ready to accept the criticism that will come our way as we seek to be faithful to following the Gospel. Jesus suffered for our sake and thus it is reasonable to assume that we will come face to face with suffering somewhere in our lives of service of His Kingdom. There is nowhere in the Gospel where Jesus tells us that we will not suffer if we follow Him. The contrary is true in that He constantly reminds us we will have crosses to carry and that we will be persecuted for our love of the Gospel.
John the Baptist in a certain sense precedes Stephen as the first Christian martyr, it is just that he did not really know that he was a follower of Christ as that was not yet an option open to him. John stands before us today as a man whose commitment to moral truth gives rise to his death. He refused to allow immorality to stand without challenging it and he pays the price of his life for this. Let us pray that we will all have a similar commitment to the truth when it comes our turn to challenge the immorality of the present world.
- Fr. Steve T. , Kerygma Family
REFLECTION QUESTION:
Do I tend to remain silent in the midst of lies and sinful practices or am I willing to stand up for the truth regardless of the consequences?
Holy Spirit, help me to always be a witness to the truth who seeks not to be accepted by the world but wholly and acceptable to God who is truth and love.
St. Basilla, virgin, pray for us.
