Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jeremiah 20:10-13; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-35
Jeremiah is considered one of the “major,” or more important, prophets, along with Isaiah and Ezekiel — partly because of the length of Jeremiah’s prophecy and the critical time in which this prophecy was proclaimed, but also because its message so clearly reveals the very basis of Hebrew, and later Christian, belief.
In this passage, Jeremiah declares that, come what may, the justice of God will prevail. Note that especially mentioned as dear to God are the poor, helpless and mistreated.
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans provides the second reading. For us today, admitting all the struggles that modern life may bring, it is difficult to imagine what the Christian Romans, to whom Paul wrote, experienced. Every value of the Gospel, which was so dear to them, stood utterly opposite the culture, and the popular opinion, that swirled around them, especially in the great imperial capital.
Indeed, professing faith in Christ risked arrest, torture and death, but it was not just about violating the law of the empire.
Accepting Gospel values, Christians were not in step with everyone else. They were outside society, odd, strange. Anytime and everywhere, outsiders — the unconventional — are feared and unwanted. Believers in Jesus faced scorn, rebuke and rejection, even by friends and relatives.
St. Paul admonished these Christians to be strong in faith, to relent in nothing. Christ is the only answer and the only reward. Nothing else matters.
St. Matthew’s Gospel supplies the final reading. It repeats the message from Romans: Be firm in faith. Fortified by Christ, nothing is a threat. Stand with the Lord.
Then the Gospel insists again on a tenet that utterly penetrates the Scriptures and is stated literally a thousand times: Every person, no matter his or her circumstances, good but even bad, is precious and unique. Every hair on the head of every human is treasured by God, and most be treasured by any genuine believer.
Reflection
One year has passed since the election of Pope Leo XIV. He has done nothing in the least to set himself apart from his predecessors, but he has already made history, simply by applying to current events and attitudes the ancient teachings of the Gospel, as transmitted faithfully for 2,000 years by the church.
Read this weekend’s Scriptures for Mass with the Holy Father’s recent words, and historic church teachings, in mind. In the first reading, note Jeremiah’s account of the resistance he met as he, a prophet, proclaimed what truly it meant to be a servant of God, a believer in our terms today.
The lesson is clear. Human fortune can be, and often is, fickle. People can be ignorant, and they can be cruel. Yet, Jeremiah writes, God is just, and God’s justice will prevail.
The poor and the needy, whatever their circumstances, are God’s most beloved.
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, the second reading, was written in a context with which many modern believers can relate. The world followed, and even glorified, perspectives as opposite from the Gospel as they could be. Discipleship was serious business. Today’s committed Christians are not always understood or appreciated.
In St. Matthew’s Gospel, the Lord reassures the apostles. They, as would the Roman Christians to whom St. Paul wrote, had their critics, and even bitter enemies. All but John and Judas would die violently in the hands of enemies.
Jesus tells them to be strong in their fight. The Lord also reminds them that each person is precious and unique in the sight of God. Any who deny respect to anyone for whatever reason, the Lord is fearfully blunt, will suffer on the day of judgment.