Ordinary Time, Extraordinary Courage

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reflecting on the Word

By Dr. Karla J. Bellinger

The prophet Jeremiah captures my imagination. He is called to  speak the word of the Lord at a tender age: “I am too young,” he  objects. Repeatedly he resists his call to preach: “I try to hold it in,  but it burns like fire in my heart, imprisoned in my bones.” He is  brutally honest before God. He is also starkly straightforward with  kings. His forthrightness gets him into trouble: he’s thrown into  the muck of a cistern, imprisoned in the stocks, mocked and made  fun of, and ultimately hauled off to Egypt to end his life where he  doesn’t want to be.

Do you ever wonder if Jeremiah wished that he could simply be  an ordinary guy? God’s call was sometimes just too challenging.  “You duped me, Lord,” he says, “and I let myself be duped.” He  may have prayed today’s psalm: “Rescue me from the mire, and do  not let me sink . . . for it is on your account that I bear insult.”  Though he is smacked down over and over, Jeremiah keeps popping  back up again.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus warns the disciples of that same kind  of opposition. He knows that the muck is real. But he says time  after time, “Do not be afraid . . . Even the hairs of your head are  counted.” What are we to be afraid of? Not physical death, but  spiritual cowardice.

Fortitude is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There may be  times when life calls for swashbuckling bravado. But more often, the  Divine Nudge encourages us to roll out of bed with an “it doesn’t  matter how you feel today, just get up and keep going” kind of  everyday courage. Sainthood is in the small things. Heroic virtue  grows through giving God one obedient yes at a time.

Consider/Discuss 

  • Fear is part of life. We get burned and we grow cautious. Yet Jesus says  repeatedly, “Do not be afraid.” In what part of our lives do we need Holy  Spirit fortitude so that we can keep rising back up to do what we are called  to do, in spite of our fear or weakness?
  • The saints and prophets were brutally honest in their relationship with  God. Are you willing to yell at God, to pour out your heart in prayer and  be forthright with the Creator of the universe? Why or why not? What does  that look like?

Living and Praying with the Word 

Lord, sometimes I’d rather stay in bed and take life easy. Yet  Jeremiah and the saints and you yourself show me another way—to  keep giving and loving and preaching even when it is personally  challenging. Guide my discernment in the balance between self-care  and self-gift. I seek you. I offer myself to you. Help me to trust you  to use me according to your best lights, for you watch over even the  hairs of my head. Cast out my fear and keep me close to you.

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