Wooing the World

Learning how to love God and being loved by him

09/03/2023

Jer 20:7-9 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. Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; the word of the LORD has brought me derision and reproach all the day. I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.

Whenever I prepare couples for marriage I like to ask them how the young man proposed to the young lady. Last week I heard a rather humorous proposal story. The young man works at ABF, at the new building on McClure. There is a small, scenic amphitheater on the same hill that his office building sits on, and he decided that would be the site where his destiny would be determined by her answer.

So, he told his girlfriend that there was an ABF office party one evening and he was required to attend. He wanted her to come along as his guest. By the way, here was no such office party. As they approached ABF, he said, “Hey, let me show you this beautiful little amphitheater over here.” She begrudgingly accepted after arguing, “Honey, it is 105 degree out here! And I am melting!” But he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

They arrived at the amphitheater, and with the sun setting in the west, their faces glistening with sweat, he got down on one knee, pulled out a stunning diamond ring from his pocket, and asked her to marry him. She answered, “Sure! Now, let’s get back inside!” I love to hear how guys take so much time and planning, use their energy and creativity to make just the right proposal. Would that husbands did that every time they interacted with their wives!

Today’s first reading from Jeremiah is one of my favorite Old Testament Scriptures. Why? Well, in a sense, Jeremiah is also reminiscing about his falling in love with God, and being wooed by the Almighty, and finally committing his life to his service. Jeremiah says: “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.” Maybe there are a few wives who look back to the day their husbands proposed and felt the same way: “You duped me into marrying you!”

But a few verses later, Jeremiah adds some of the most touching verses in the entire Bible: “I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak his name no more. But then it becomes like a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in.” You know, when spouses truly love each other, may feel like they were duped into love and marriage, but they also feel like they had no choice. Their love was too strong to resist.

I often think that must be how God feels about us: somehow he duped himself into loving humanity – you and me – and now he cannot stop loving us. God says: “You duped me, Fr. John, and I let myself be duped into loving you!” You see, in the end love conquers all, it even conquers God, because God is love. In other words, it is good to be duped by true love.

I am convinced that during our whole lives God is not trying to woo us, like he wooed Jeremiah, and trying to get us to fall in love with him, and love him so much, we want to marry him, and commit our lives to him completely. A couple of weeks ago before school started, I gave the I.C. School teachers a reflection about the true identity of Catholic schools. I said one of the hallmarks of Catholic schools is evangelization, converting people to Christ. In other words, education is the bait on the hook we use to catch fish and haul them into the boat of the Catholic Church, called the Bark of St. Peter.

But the reason the Catholic Church ultimately engages in the education of children is not just to teach the A-B-C’s, or the 1-2-3’s, but to teach people about Jesus and the Catholic faith. That is really the reason why the Catholic Church runs orphanages, and soup kitchens, and hospitals, and homeless shelters. We don’t just want to heal the body or merely educate the mind, but to save the soul.

Our ultimate aim is to make the whole world Catholic, and we use all kinds of bait to catch the fish, like that young man fooled his girlfriend with the fib of a work dinner party to get her to the amphitheater. We want the whole world to finally declare: “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped!” You see, at the end of time, that is what the whole world will say, because loving the Lord and being loved by him is all that will finally matter.

Folks, what are some of the ways God has gotten your attention, wooing you, and maybe even duping you into falling in love with him? Often, the beauty of nature raises our minds and hearts to God and we fall in love with our Creator. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

Maybe it is the birth of a child, and later grandchildren, who bring us back to God. How many parents come back to Mass seeing how excited their second grader gets to receive Holy Communion. Sometimes God has to use stronger medicine to heal the cancer of self-sufficiency, thinking we don’t need God: a divorce, a lost job, a cancer diagnosis, the death of a loved one. Sometimes the bodily illness is the cure for what really afflicts us in our spirit. The disease heals.

Last week on August 28, we celebrated the feast of St. Augustine, who summarized this divine wooing of humanity with two powerful sayings. You have probably heard these before, but they are worth repeating. First he said: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” And secondly, he wrote: “Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty, ever ancient, ever new. Late have I loved Thee.”

I believe we all figure out rather late in the game that the real meaning of life is all about falling in love with God, because he has first fallen in love with us. He dupes us into loving him, because in a sense, he has already been duped by us. I love to hear the stories of how young men propose, because it reminds me that is exactly what God is doing with us.

Praised be Jesus Christ!