Jer. 20:7-9; Ps 63:2-6, 8-9; Rom. 12:1-2; Mt. 16:21-27

“You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped” says Jerimiah.  Today we would say you conned me Lord but I could not resist you.  Jerimiah was not naïve knowing how he would be rejected and persecuted for standing up for the Lord.  Why would anyone be willing to walk into the “fire” of injustice, ridicule, persecution or even death?  It is the power of love greater than any fear.  It is love that makes a parent run into a burning house to rescue their child or a young man stand with his fallen soldier and fight rather than retreat to safety. 

In every human soul there is a warrior spirit to carry the fight.  This warrior spirit comes from God with a divine purpose to love, serve, and sacrifice.  What we love we will sacrifice for and it will serve a greater purpose than ourselves.  We sacrifice for our family out of love and serve each other that all may be united as one.  This is God’s call that we may all be one in him.  Jesus however calls us to love, serve, and sacrifice beyond our family to the degree of self-denial to “take up his cross and follow me”. 

Today, Jeremiah is suffering an interior crisis in accepting his call to be a prophet for the Lord.  He calls out to God, “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.”  Recall when a child comes about to ask for something there is a different pitch in their voice and so is in a spouse.  You know something is coming yet out of love of the person we accept being “duped” because we cannot resist their love.  This is Jeremiah’s reaction to God.  Jeremiah could not deny the Lord his calling knowing he would be persecuted.  In his weakness he wanted to remain silent but he could not contain himself what he knew was the truth God had revealed to him.  Even in weakness he understood there was only one right choice in serving God.  Do we recognize the choice God is asking of us this day?  In prayer we “discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” obedience to his call. 

Suffering and dying to oneself will bring us to a crossroads where we will experience an interior crisis of faith, hope and love.  It presents in the many faces of suffering through sickness, death of a loved one, betrayal, persecution, rejection, even abandonment being forgotten as we age.  In the dark night where can we go, who can we turn to who truly knows us as we are but the one true God who brought us into this world and will come to take us with him.  A crisis of faith is a calling out to God to rescue us from our very selves, to see ourselves as he sees us, his love, mercy, and passion that died for us and will never abandon us. The God we trust more than ourselves.  God now and forever. 

Jesus is calling us to follow in his footsteps by being a warrior for what is good, pleasing, and perfect love of God.  When Peter takes Jesus aside and tries to rebuke him, he speaks as “human beings do”.  This is the same Peter who just before spoke through the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the “Christ, the son of the living God.”  How quickly he has returned to his human way of thinking.  How quickly we can lose focus of God’s call and will for us and become immersed in our own world unless we remain constantly coming to receive him in word, sacrament, and in prayer.  Peter reminds us that Satan never rests from being a distraction in the least and on the attack at worst. 

The universal church is under attack around the world.  In some places public worship is not allowed and the attack is from outside the church.  Traditional church values have been targeted as “extremist” and compared to “terroristic threats”.  Attack from the outside however is nothing new if we think back to the persecution of the early church.  The more it was persecuted the stronger and greater it grew.  This mystery is the fruit of sacrifice that came from the cross and martyrdom.  This calling remains today.  We are to not fear Satan from the outside. 

We are to be vigilant of Satan coming from the inside under the shadow of progressiveness.  Change can be good but it also can be the work of evil.  Jesus reminds us “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves”.  Change that is self-serving is not the will of God.  The innocence of a warrior dove is that it delivers the “truth” as revealed by God and not by man.  God wants you and I to stand firm and may our name be revealed with holy meaning that stands with and for Christ. 

God calls us by name so consider what God’s name for us is today.  God’s naming reflects his purpose and today he may be calling us “prayer warrior, voice of justice, fearless faith, comfort to the suffering, mercy to the unjust, hope in persecution”.  Most of all he calls us his own.