This weekend’s first reading from the prophet Jeremiah is precious. He shows us how to feel free to let God know exactly what is going on in our lives. To say to God that “You duped me”, expresses an openness and trust that is most admirable. Jeremiah had no fear in letting God know how difficult it was to fulfill his ministry of calling the leadership and the people to get their lives on the correct path, to renew the relationship with God that God desires. We have similar experiences when we try to help self-centered or rigid people consider another way of looking at life. Like Jeremiah, we have days when we would prefer not to speak of how God wants us to live and relate. Once we have allowed ourselves to experience in the depths of our being the indwelling of love, we, too, feel a fire burning within. We pray that we not waste time and energy in trying to suppress it, but that we do our best to share the gift we cherish.
Both our Gospel passage and the first reading for this Sunday refer to the image of keys. For some, keys are a symbol of power and control; they decide who will be let in and when the proper time is. Keys can be a sign of how inclusive and welcoming a family or institution are. In our first reading, a key opens and shuts. In our Gospel, keys are an image of binding and loosing. The community that Jesus established was one marked by inclusion and loosing. As we reflect on Jesus’ interactions with any number of people, we quickly realize that He welcomed anyone who wanted to know more about Him and His ministry. On behalf of those He was helping, He even went to the homes of people who tended to oppose Him and His actions. One main purpose of Jesus’ mission was to loose people of their burdens, particularly issues such as a distorted image of God, shame, guilt, dishonor, and many other ills that drained people of the energy they needed to become the best possible version of themselves. We pray that more and more people will join in continuing this ministry in our world that has so many people bound by any number of troubling circumstances or has them shut out of what is due for every person God created.
In Sunday's Gospel, we hear Jesus say that He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In our second reading St. Paul continues to lament how the Jewish people are not taking the message of the good news that Jesus made known. A similar concern exists today. Some people claim that they are followers of Jesus, but their behavior does not bear that out. Acknowledging that sad reality, is it naïve to think that that reality could encourage the rest of us to share with one another how we experience the goodness of God so that in the process we can help each other be clear that we are being as faithful to it as possible? We know that talking about our faith is a very vulnerable activity. For those already doing so, we pray for perseverance. For those putting forth their best efforts to do so but think they are somewhat inexperienced in doing so, please may the Holy Spirit continue to guide this adventure. For those for whom this would be an entirely new activity, perhaps a way to get started is to write out some reflections on our faith which we will allow others to read or that we can share ourselves.