This week’s scripture reminds us of the problems we will surely confront when we put our trust in human beings rather than God. Jeremiah puts the case starkly, stating:
Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.
“Cursed!” Jeremiah prophesies.
That’s pretty strong language, isn’t it? And counterintuitive.
Shouldn’t we trust our spouse, parents, teachers, and bosses in the workplace as well as our political, social, and religious leaders? Aren’t we and our world worse off when we don’t put our trust in those people who care so much about us and our happiness?
Jeremiah compares those who trust in those human beings to a “barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth.” The Psalmist adds that these folks follow the counsel of the wicked, walk in the way of sinners, and sit in the company of the insolent. They’re “like chaff which the wind drives away” and, when they die, they vanish as if they’ve never lived because the fact is they really haven’t ever lived. Instead, those who trust in human beings may have been alive but they only existed, always following others, and never becoming the person God created them to become—to really live as God intended—in and from the beginning.
Jeremiah and the Psalmist were describing “sleepy” Catholics.
Seeking happiness, “sleepy” Catholics spend their days negotiating how best to live in this world…which requires trusting in human beings. They hedge their bets, however, trusting in others only so much because they’ve learned from personal experience and are fully aware of how fickle others can be...as they themselves are. One day everything’s wonderful—“sleepy Catholics” are on top of the world—and the next day their universe may collapse. Abandoning those who have failed to provide the happiness for which the hearts of “sleepy” Catholics long, they toss those folks to the roadside and move onto others in the vain hope they’ll make them happy.
In the end, “sleepy” Catholics spend their days getting on and off of a merry-go-round of relationships never realizing they’re going nowhere in life. The happiness they seek by trusting in human beings is perpetually elusive…somewhere always beyond their grasp and never fulfilled by another human being.
In contrast, Jeremiah calls those who trust and place their hope in God “blessed.” Comparing these folks to a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream, they fear not when the heat and drought come, as they inevitably will—global warming or not—and its leaves remain green and still bear fruit.
How’s this possible? These folks continuously imbibe of what Italians call the “aquavit”—the “water (or elixir) of life.”
What’s that water of life? These folks “delight in the law of the LORD and meditate on it day and night,” the Psalmist tells us.
That’s not something most folks today find appealing. In fact, some would rather do anything and everything else other than to delight in the law of the LORD and meditate on it 24/7/365.
But Jesus offered an explanation: While those who trust in human beings live to achieve happiness in this world, they don’t give one thought to eternity. Jesus asked: Isn’t it better to be poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced as evil in this world than it is to forsake eternal life?
Those who trust in human beings respond, “No.” They’d rather not suffer but spend their days having more than sufficient money to be satisfied and laughing as well as to be beloved, included, and respected by others. Young people today call this spiritual and moral disease “FOMO”—“fear of missing out.” To these people Jeremiah called “cursed,” Jesus says, “you have received your consolation.” In the end, you’ll be the ones who will be spiritually and morally hungry, grieving and weeping, and be rejected when it’s most important to be accepted.
Like their “sleepy” Catholic counterparts, “WOKE” Catholics also desire to be happy in this world. Yet, in contrast to their counterparts, “WOKE” Catholics strive to find happiness not in this world and other human beings but in eternity and God. They delight in the law of the LORD, yes, and even though they may not meditate on it 24/7/365, they make the sincere attempt each day to pattern their conduct upon it.
“WOKE” Catholics know that happiness this world and human beings in it are transitory, flooding and ebbing like the tide. They desire something more permanent and unchanging, realizing that it’s found in only in truth, not people and things. Their search for truth leads “WOKE” Catholics to realize that this truth is found in God and unchanging divine law.
Delighting in God and divine law and patterning their conduct accordingly, “WOKE” Catholics know the challenges presented by daily life in this world—not having everything they want and even being poor, perhaps not having sufficient food and even being hungry some days, not being happy and even weeping, not fitting in and even begin hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced as evil—aren’t permanent and unchanging. Although the trials and sufferings of this world are real, they’re meaningless because they come and go. But, the truth never changes.
That represents the challenge Scripture presents us this week if we’re going to wake from being “sleepy” Catholics and become “WOKE” Catholics: To delight in the law of the LORD.
While this isn’t likely to happen overnight if only because if we’re to delight in the law of the LORD, we’ll first have to appreciate it’s truth.
To this end, each day of the next six days of this week, conduct a memento mori upon awaking each day by recalling what St. Paul taught the Corinthians:
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.
Then, take a couple of minutes to contemplate the fourth through tenth commandments, one each day.
So, beginning tomorrow, conduct that memento mori and contemplate “Honor your father and mother.” However, since our goal this week is to appreciate it’s truth, contemplate opposite: “Dishonor your father and mother.” If this is the truth that’s permanent and unchanging, envision what this kind of conduct surely will engender or has already engendered in your relationship with your parents, in your home, in your family and among your relatives. Then ask: “Is this what I really desire in life? Is this what brings permanent and unchanging happiness?”
Of course, the answer is “No.” None of us desires any of that!
Then, appreciating the truth, it’s time to embrace the truth and pattern our lives life upon it: To delight in the law of the LORD by doing something to honor your father and mother on Monday.
Engage in the same exercise each day of the upcoming week. On Tuesday, for example, “Thou shall not kill.” Again, consider it’s opposite: There are many ways to kill others, for example, with our words that are intended to hurt, deceive, and destroy others and their reputation. And , and so on. By the end of this week, each of us will not only appreciate the law of the LORD but also will have taken delight in it.
This week, being a “WOKE” Catholic means learning to delight in the law of the LORD by first appreciate it’s truth, “rejoicing and be glad for our reward will be great in heaven.” Otherwise, we will continue along the pathway of “sleepy” Catholics whose conduct Jeremiah called “cursed” and St. Paul noted “are the most pitiable people of all.”
None of us who attended Mass today here or anywhere throughout the world can say “I didn’t know” or “I wasn’t told” when it will count most.
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