Pointing to Christ
Reflections on fear, our calling, and evangelization based on today's readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062426-Vigil
Today, we see Jeremiah being called by the Lord, yet hesitating with fear. Not only are we told that he is afraid, but also why—he fears that he is too young to accomplish what God has asked him to do.
The Lord addresses this fear, but in a much different way than we usually address the fears of others. Rather than trying to build confidence through self-esteem, the Lord shows us that true confidence comes from faith in Him.
He does not want us to be naïve. Jeremiah is young and will be rejected by some because of this. He does not possess within himself the wisdom necessary to complete what the Lord has asked him to do. Yet he can be confident because the Lord who assigned this mission will be with him, assisting him in carrying it out.
Our further readings emphasize how necessary it was not only for Jeremiah but also for the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation that he answered his call. It is precisely because he spoke the words God gave him that the people were prepared to understand and receive the grace promised through Christ, as described by St. Peter.
If only we realized that the same is true for us. If we allow the logic of the world to prevent us from fulfilling the mission given to us by Heaven, we deprive both ourselves and others of particular graces that God intends to work through us. This is what it means to share in a prophetic mission, which all the baptized do, and this is why it is so important to fulfill it.
And when it comes to prophets, John the Baptist stands as the greatest of them. While the prophets pointed to Christ’s coming in the future, he pointed to the Messiah present in the flesh. He possessed true confidence because he recognized his own littleness before the Lord while trusting completely in the goodness and greatness of God.
Our call to be prophets is much the same. We must decrease so that He may increase. How many of our efforts to evangelize are stifled because they are too much about ourselves and not enough about Him?
We are also called to be the kind of prophet that John the Baptist was. We are not pointing to the coming of the Lord in the future, but to Christ truly present in the Eucharist through His Church.
Once again, it is not so much a matter of our words as it is a matter of our heart. Is it set on the Lord or on ourselves? Do we truly recognize our own weaknesses and our inability to complete this mission on our own? And do we place our trust entirely in Him, who alone is capable of bringing to completion the mission we have been given?