The Book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament tells us about the time when Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet (Jeremiah 1:4-19). At first, Jeremiah refused; but God told Jeremiah that he had already been chosen and appointed as a prophet even before he was formed in his mother’s womb. Jeremiah’s mission was to prophesy to the kings of Judah that if Judah did not repent of their sins, Jerusalem would be destroyed by invaders from the north. God encouraged Jeremiah not to be afraid, because God will give him courage and strength to make him like a fortified city, a wall of bronze and iron. God promised Jeremiah that He would be with him to help him.
I remember this story of Jeremiah when I encounter difficulties and obstacles in my life. I pray to God: Lord, if this is really Your will, then please give me the courage and strength to do it. This prayer gives me peace and comfort, because backed with God’s blessing, anything can be overcome. St. Paul wrote to the Romans: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
Chapter 13 of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians is one of my favorite scripture passages. Think about it, if you could only ask God for one gift, what would you ask for? If you had asked me this question when I was younger, I would have said that I wanted financial security and an easy life. But my life experiences have taught me to seek a different gift. What St. Paul said really makes sense: “When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. (1 Corinthians 13:11)” It may be practical for adults to want financial security or an easy life, but spiritual maturity for a Christian means looking above and beyond the things of this world.
Do I want to have the knowledge of angels? Or the gift of prophecy? Do I want the power to understand all mysteries and all kinds of knowledge? Or even to have a faith that can move mountains? St. Paul teaches us that it is good to have these gifts, but they are all useless if one does not have love – a kind of love that is patient, kind, not jealous, not arrogant, not self-seeking, but a love that bears all things and endure all things. Above anything else, a spiritually mature Christian would ask for the gift of this kind of love, because those who have this kind of love will eventually find their eternal home in heaven.
The Gospels tell us that when Jesus went to His hometown, the reception given to Him by the people of Nazareth changed from curiosity and enthusiasm to hostility and violence. They felt that Jesus had not done enough miracles in His home town. They wanted Jesus to prove Himself and to perform miracles for them. What they got instead from Jesus were stories from the Old Testament about prophets who used their healing powers to cure foreigners. As in the case of Elijah and Elisha, the initial admiration of the people turned to rejection, because these prophets called out the people for their sins and called them to repentance. Therefore, only a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon and Naaman the Syrian, both non-Israelites, benefitted from the ministry of the two prophets.
Do we sometimes lose patience when we keep begging God for something and see no results? On the other hand, shouldn’t we rather think that God is trying to teach us something? If we act rashly like the Nazarenes in the Gospel, we may miss out on the opportunity to learn something really valuable from God. Let us always remember that God’s will, God’s time and God’s way is perfect; our own will, time and way are not. Knowing this is more valuable than any other knowledge in this world.