“You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed” (Jeremiah 20:7).
Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me’” (Matthew 16:24).
Dear Marian Helpers and Members of our Marian Family,
Sometimes, I think we feel like poor Jeremiah, like the Lord has duped us. “Lord, you said we would be blessed! And look at my life…it’s a complete mess. You duped me, Lord, and I let myself be duped.”
But, if we pay attention to what Jesus says in this Sunday’s Gospel, we’ll read that He never promised that it would be easy. On the contrary, He makes it very clear that following Him will involve the Cross. In the same way, St. Paul tells us that we must sacrifice ourselves for God, just as Christ sacrificed Himself for us. All this talk of sacrifice and suffering is not for the faint of heart.
Living for God means living for Him and for others and not ourselves. It means putting God and others first.
A rather cheesy but helpful reminder for this is that the Christian life is based on JOY: Jesus, Others, Yourself. But, in a strange way, when we put God and others first, we find ourselves and find the joy and meaning that is so often missing from our lives.
The crosses we bear may be extremely heavy: illness, financial hardship or uncertainty. Perhaps they may be a bit smaller: waiting for our boiler to be fixed, a delayed train or finding our favourite café closed for lunch. It doesn’t matter what crosses we carry; we are called to carry them for and with the Lord.
The sacrifices and sufferings that life throws our way are enough; we don’t necessarily need to search out new ones. If we carry the loads that we bear patiently and prayerfully, they give us plenty of opportunities to grow in virtue, trust in God’s Providence, and learn to accept all things with a spirit of prayer and joy. Not easy, but as I said before, Jesus never said it would be easy. He did, however, say that it’s the path we must walk if we want to follow Him. And we do! And so, we walk.
This week, perhaps find one little sacrifice you can make each day: not reaching for that extra biscuit or saying a kind word to someone who’s annoying you. At the same time, whenever an inconvenience, pain or trouble comes your way that you didn’t choose, say a little prayer and ask God to help you carry that Cross for your own good and the good of those around you.
Jeremiah’s life was not an easy one…it was full of hardship and suffering. Yet, he is a model for us of a life lived in union with God. He was blessed, just not in the way we often think of blessing. We think of blessing as health, wealth or general well-being. He didn’t have those things, but he was blessed with God’s continual presence and with the privilege of being called to serve the Lord and to bear faithfully whatever God asked of him.
Like Jeremiah, then, we can learn to recognise the blessing hidden within the Cross: not necessarily an easier life, but a life lived with God.
May God bless you now and always!
Fr Alex Pumphrey, MIC
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Contact >Father Alex at info@divinemercy.org.uk
Please send us your prayer intentions! (click here). We will place them at the foot of our altar in the Divine Mercy Apostolate’s Chapel here in West Ealing, London and will remember them in our daily Chaplets of Divine Mercy.
