"PRECIOUS IN THE EYES OF GOD"

 30^th July, 2022:

SATURDAY,  SEVENTEENTH WEEK 

OF ORDINARY TIME (C)

(Jer 26: 11-16, 24); (Mt 14: 1-12)

"PRECIOUS IN THE EYES OF GOD"

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we paid attention to the expressions of the Scriptures we are given the real factors confronting the people who are reliable and focused on God, even more so particularly for the people who have been called to be shepherds and priests to people of God, similar to that of the prophets and couriers of God. As we heard in our Scripture sections today, the prophets and workers of God frequently needed to endure a ton of dismissal and even mistreatment unto demise, as what a significant number of reliable workers of God had encountered previously, as well as numerous other heavenly people of God.

In our most memorable reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah of the showdown between the ministers and the false prophets of Judah with Jeremiah, who was around then, the main devoted prophet and worker of God left in Judah, during the last days of that realm. Jeremiah had been conveying the expressions of God to His people in Judah, advance notice every one of them that the city of Jerusalem and the entire of Judah would before long be obliterated in view of the proceeded with sins and the fiendishness of people who would not pay attention to God or to apologize from their transgressions and malicious ways.

In that capacity, Jeremiah was viewed as a offender and, surprisingly, a deceiver by some among people, and his messages went against those purported misleading prophets who passed on their own messages and manner of speaking of magnificence for the realm of Judah. Those misleading prophets told the lord of Judah and people that they would have the option to defeat their adversaries and they would win, when in truth, those words didn't come from God. What Jeremiah talked about would ultimately work out when later on the Babylonians came, attacked and annihilated the realm of Judah and Jerusalem, and carried people to banish.

At the point when the clerics and the bogus prophets defied Jeremiah as we heard in our most memorable understanding today, we heard the unpleasant ill will that existed among them, and how Jeremiah was truly alone in his battle against them, and he was cornered and even had dangers against him, as he was charged as a doomsayer and even double crosser to people and the realm, with people calling out for his passing. Yet, as we heard in our most memorable understanding today, Jeremiah made a firm stand before people, and expressing that all that he had expressed came from the Lord Himself, and saying that people generally expected to atone and get some distance from their wrongdoings before it was past the point of no return for them.

That made a portion of people to come to put stock in Jeremiah and favored him, including a portion of the people who might ultimately help him in his critical long stretches of need, and safeguarded him from his inconveniences later on. The Lord showed His provision for His unwavering workers for this situation, while spreading the word about His will and words for all. In our Gospel section today, we additionally heard one more one of His workers supporting reality, and rebuking the people who had been rebellious against God, as was told on account of St. John the Baptist and him advising ruler Herod and his unlawful, two-timing relationship with Herodias, his own sibling's significant other.

St. John the Baptist was captured and detained due to what he did and said, yet that didn't hose his soul or prevent him from proceeding to censure the lord for his proceeded with absence of ethical quality and his insubordination against God. What's more, in the end as we heard in our Gospel entry today, Herodias, who held a profound resentment against St. John the Baptist, plotted his demise by utilizing her own girl to tempt Herod during a celebratory party, and wound up in fooling him into requesting the execution of the dependable worker of God. St. John the Baptist was martyred for his responsibility and confidence in the Lord, for his longing to carry God's salvation to His people.

Today, we likewise have one more illustration of confidence by one of our heavenly ancestors, specifically that of St. Peter Chrysologus, an extraordinary minister, evangelist and later on named as a Doctor of the Church. He was the Bishop of Ravenna during the prime of the Roman Empire in the western pieces of Europe, and was associated with his extraordinary and extremely succinct lessons and messages, his extraordinary stylistic abilities and capacity to interface with people which procured him the appellation, Chrysologus, which in a real sense signifies, 'brilliant tongued'. St. Peter Chrysologus made such basic yet moving messages which moved large numbers of people and transformed numerous into the confidence.

St. Peter Chrysologus gave his life and work to really focus on his run and he was additionally extremely dedicated in combatting and restricting blasphemies and all bogus lessons that were widespread in those days, protecting his run against the debasing powers of the people who tried to misdirect people of God. His boldness and assurance in supporting the genuine confidence, for God and for his rush of the dependable was very much like that of the prophet Jeremiah and that of St. John the Baptist, referenced recently. These extraordinary holy people and workers of God genuinely showed us how it affects us to be unwavering Christians and serious supporters and adherents of our God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard these superb and moving stories, let us all ourselves be spurred and roused to carry on with our lives dependably from this point forward as Christians, in name just, yet additionally through genuine deeds and activities. Allow every one of us to be propelled to stroll down the way that God has set before us, to be devoted to Him, and for us to commit our time and exertion, to celebrate Him no matter what. May the Lord proceed to help and guide us in our excursion, presently and evermore. Amen.