Suffering for the Faith (20th Sunday of Ordinary Time)

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Jeremiah was sent by God to inform the people of Judah that their idolatry, disregard for God’s Law, and trust in worldly power rather than God would bring God’s displeasure upon them, and that they would soon feel His judgment for this. The entire book of Jeremiah testifies to this. Here, we see his warnings falling on deaf ears. Worse than that, the princes of Judah decided to inflict a slow, torturous death on him by throwing him into a dried up well. If not for the intervention of Ebed-melech, he would have surely died of thirst there.

Jeremiah’s suffering reflects the suffering of all believers who stand up for God’s truth even when doing so is unpopular among the people at large. Thus, this reading meshes seamlessly with today’s epistle and Gospel readings in preparing Christians to face staunch, sometimes violent, opposition that will come from the world. This is because, as Jesus has pointed out, the people of this world love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil (John 3:19).

Perhaps we will not be put to death for our faith, but we will experience loss nonetheless. To proclaim Christ as the only way will mark us out as bigots in a “tolerant” society. To make a stand for Christian morality will cause people to see us as regressive, and may even cost some of us our friends and careers. However, Jesus already told us that this would happen, so it should not surprise us when it does (John 16:1-4).

More importantly, we should not be afraid to suffer, for Jesus teaches that the reward for faithfulness to Him far exceeds whatever losses we may incur now:

Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life. (Luke 18:29-30)

J. Luis Dizon