4th Sunday Ordinary Time - Year C

The Uphill Struggle of Discipleship

According to a myth popular among the ancient Greeks, Sisyphus, the king of Corinth and reputed founder of the Isthmian Games, was punished by gods because he outwitted them.  Punishment was to push an enormous boulder up a steep incline.  The moment he reached the top, the boulder would roll down and Sisyphus had to begin all over again.  The task of bearing the message of God’s word to others and the daily duties of discipleship can be similarly burdensome, requiring similar “Sisyphean” strength and endurance.

Each day, the disciple must accept to begin anew the often uphill struggle of hearing, keeping, living, doing, preaching and witnessing to the truth of God’s word.  Because that message of truth often brings to light that which is slack and sinful and challenges those who hear it to repentance and conversion, the bearer of the message is sometimes abused.  Shooting the messenger is often deemed easier than allowing the message of truth to penetrate, penalize and purify.

That Jeremiah and Jesus experience the weighty burdens of their respective ministries is clearly seen in today’s first reading (Jer 1: 4-5, 17-19) and gospel (Luke 4:21-30).  Recall the utterances warning Jeremiah of the resistance and rejection he would encounter.  Initially well received by his hometown crowd Jesus soon became the object of their derision.  Paul knew that many would find the word of God on love (2nd Reading, 1Cor. 12:31-13) to be impractical, even impossible to implement.  Paul, like Jesus and Jeremiah before him, was convinced that the living word of the living God is the norm by which believers are to form their values and set their priorities, the challenge to which they are to respond, a means by which they come to God and themselves and the tool by which attitudes are adjusted, and hearts are sensitized to others’ needs. 

By virtue of the presence of God within, Jeremiah, Paul, Jesus and every struggling disciple are rendered capable of exercising a prophetic ministry.  Are we ready to become God’s prophetic voice in bringing the churches together?