Have you ever felt that you have been made a fool of? That you are on the receiving end of a prank or joke, and everyone is laughing at you? I presume then you can relate to Jeremiah in the first reading. He is complaining to God that he has been made the laughingstock of Jerusalem and it seems like all his efforts on God’s behalf are wasted and have come to nothing. At times in our walk with God we too may have times where we are the outcast. Where our family and friends abandon us and treat us as a pariah. We are left alone, broken, ignored, ridiculed, deprived of basic needs.
Yet at such times, like the prophet, we need to cling even more to God, to trust in his mercy, his judgment, and his plan. Even though it seems like we are fighting everyone, we are called to follow through in our commitment to God. Saint Teresa of Kolkata, (Calcutta), once wrote, “God does not require that we be successful only that we be faithful.”
Like Jeremiah and Mother Teresa, Paul reminds us that in being faithful we are called “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.” Ouch! That sounds potentially painful and not very pleasant. Yet the Gospel reading emphasizes this same point when Jesus tells his disciples, “That he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly.”
We say we want to follow Jesus but how often are we like Peter in saying, “”God forbid, Lord!” When our family and friends tell us we are not normal or being reasonable do we rebuke them as Jesus did Peter and say, “You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” Remember to be a disciple of Jesus means to take up our cross and follow him.
Countenance of God 