God’s Fools

Rembrandt "Jeremiah"

Deacon Tom writes ©

"God's Fools"

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Complaining one day on how she was treated, the Lord told St. Teresa of Avila, this is how I treat all my friends. St. Teresa responded… “Lord, it’s no wonder you have so few of them.” I suspect the Prophet Jeremiah experienced this same feeling. He complains to God, “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.” Jeremiah feels that God seduced him into being His pawn and given him a mission that makes him “an object of laughter;” brings him “derision and reproach all the day.” Jeremiah doesn’t see himself as God’s chosen one but rather as God’s fool. He wants to walk away from the work God has given him to do, but he can’t. God’s Word “becomes like fire burning in his heart…imprisoned in his bones” and he just can’t stop being God’s mouthpiece. So he continues to speak God’s word, even though it leads him to a life of personal sacrifice, a life of being a “fool for God.”

Jeremiah is one of many who knows the tension there is between responding to God’s call and seeking to follow the ways of the world. St. Paul continues this theme by teaching “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” Do you notice how there is no reference to “easy” or any mention of a “yellow brick road” here?

Jesus tells us that it is through Him that we come to know God’s Will and the way to do this is to “… deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Him.” We must embrace the folly of the Cross; we must be, in a real sense, “Fools for Christ” in order to see clearly the path God has in store for us. In other words, we must distinguish ourselves from the world… by what we do, by what we say, by how we view the world around us, by how we treat those we meet along the way, and by applying God’s wisdom to all that we do. This, of course, is foolishness in the eyes of the world.   

If we have been striving to live as Jesus’ disciples, we probably will get some bumps and bruises along the way. That’s a good thing. That’s how Jesus will recognize us when we come into His kingdom. He will see our scars and know that we are one of His fools who tried our best to love our enemies, forgive those who have hurt us, and seek to serve all our brothers and sisters in Christ. By our scars He will know we have been “His good and faithful servants.”

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom