Seeing how God tricks us into heaven
Jeremiah 20:7
You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; you were
too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.
Matthew 16:21-23
Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to
Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the
scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to
rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me,
Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You
are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
In all human relationships sooner
or later we employ certain tricks of the trade; we have to persuade someone to
do something disagreeable, something they don’t really want to do. For example, parents have to convince
children to eat broccoli by hiding it under mountains of cheese. A young man entices a young lady to go on a
date with him by wearing a suit and tie and attending Mass with her. Welcome gentlemen! A priest has to persuade people to give more
money in the collection – and I still have no clue how to do that! The former principal of Catholic High School
for Boys in Little Rock, Fr. George Tribou, had mastered certain tricks of the
trade with teenagers. He refused to
install air-conditioning in the entire school, except for two areas: the
library and the chapel. Those two spaces
were always cool and comfortable, and the doors were wide open in welcome! The only way to get teenage boys to go to
heaven is make the rest of the school hot as hell! Sometimes, when you have to persuade someone
to do something hard, you don’t just go up to them and ask them. You have to enter by way of the side door,
and use certain tricks of the trade.
We see in
the readings today that even God has to resort to some tricks of the trade, a
certain divine power of persuasion, to motivate the half-hearted. In the first reading Jeremiah the prophet
complains, “You have duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.” That is, he was duped into being a
prophet. You see, Jeremiah never wanted
to be a prophet, but he also knew he couldn’t resist a deeper impulse in his
bones to talk about God. Jeremiah was
like the little boy who didn’t really want to eat the broccoli, but he also
couldn’t resist the cheese God had heaped on top. In the gospel today, Peter tries to dissuade
Jesus from carrying the cross. But Jesus
says, “Get thee behind me, Satan, and stop telling me not to eat the broccoli
of suffering. My heavenly Father doesn’t
need to use any tricks to convince me to eat the broccoli even when there is no
cheese. I know what’s good.” Peter, however, was saying, “Say ‘No!’ to the
broccoli; just eat the cheese!!!” But
for Jeremiah, Peter and everyone else, God has to use tricks of the trade to
get them to do his will, to do something hard.
Did you
know that God often uses tricks to call men to the priesthood? Of course we want to be priests because we
love Jesus and we want to serve people (at least that’s what we tell
everyone!). But that’s not how God
usually gets our attention in the beginning.
A few years ago, the Diocesan Vocations office made tee-shirts with the
top 10 reasons to be a priest. Here are
a few. One, we can eat free in Mexican
restaurants. And that really works! Two, we always have a seat at Christmas
Children’s Mass, when everyone else is looking for one. And third, every time I visit a family with many
children running around like banshees I thank God he called me to be a
priest! (Not anyone here at I.C. of
course!) Here’s a more recent reason to
be a priest. We now have 4 priests
living at the rectory here at I.C. and it has given a whole new meaning to the
term, “priestly fraternity.” In fact,
we’ve given the rectory a new name, it’s three Greek letters: Beta, Alpha,
Delta, which spells, “BAD.” So, we now
have a Greek Fraternity on the I.C. campus.
Here’s another reason to be a priest.
One day a 5 year old declared to his mother he wanted to be a
priest. His mother said, “That’s fine
with us. But what made you want to do
that?” The boy answered, “Well, I have
to go to church anyway. I figure it
would be more fun to stand up and yell than to sit down and listen.” But you see, sooner or later in our
priesthood, every priest echoes the words of Jeremiah: “You have duped me, O
Lord, and I let myself be duped.” We ate
the broccoli and cheese of God’s will, and we drank the cool-aid of being Catholic
clergy. But do you know what? I’ve never been happier in my life. Sometimes, God enters our hearts through the
side door by using certain tricks of the trade.
God has to trick us to do his will, to do something hard. That’s the only way he’ll get any of us into
heaven.
You know,
it’s not just prophets and priests that God dupes and tricks into doing his
will, he dupes all of us. Throughout our
lives, I believe, God uses certain strategic tricks of the trade to draw us
closer to himself without our noticing.
Small children can’t wait to go to Catholic school because they want to
wear those plaid uniforms. Tricks of the
trade! Second graders can’t wait to
receive Holy Communion. But do you know
who God is really working on? It’s the
parents of those children. THEY need God
more than those 8 year olds do. Tricks
of the trade! Young men again darken the
doors of a church to impress a young lady.
One of the greatest forces of evangelization is beautiful Catholic
girls! Tricks of the trade! After you have your first child, suddenly you
become aware of God in a powerful way.
Dr. Janet Smith, who taught philosophy at the University of Dallas,
called having a baby, “induced maturity.”
Tricks of the trade! As we grow
older and retire and our bodies grow weaker, we think about death and leaving
this world. Older parishioners flock to
daily Mass, to make up for all those Sunday Masses they had skipped. Tricks of the trade! Do you really think all these things are
happening to us by accident? Not at
all. Like every good parent, God asks
himself: “How do I get my kids to eat broccoli?
How do I get them to attend Mass on Labor Day? How do I get them to love me above everything
and to love their neighbor as themselves?
So God comes in through the side door, using certain tricks of the
trade, and dupes you and me into doing his will, into doing something hard,
because God knows you have to put a mountain of cheese on the broccoli.
You see,
it’s not just teenage boys who have to be tricked into going to heaven by
making the rest of the school hot as hell, so do we all. And if you allow yourself to be duped by God
and do his will, you’ll discover what I did.
You’ll be incredibly happy. But
if you want to be really happy, though, you should join this new fraternity
called Beta, Alpha, Delta.
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
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