Preaching is a universal call
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Jeremiah had been warned
Jeremiah had been warned
But the Lord answered me,
Do not say, “I am too young.”
To whomever I send you, you shall go;
whatever I command you, you shall speak.
But you, prepare yourself;
stand up and tell them
all that I command you.
Do not be terrified on account of them,
or I will terrify you before them;
For I am the one who today
makes you a fortified city,
A pillar of iron, a wall of bronze,
against the whole land:
Against Judah’s kings and princes,
its priests and the people of the land.
They will fight against you, but not prevail over you,
for I am with you to deliver you—oracle of the Lord.
Jeremiah knew that he would face opposition, even the threat of death!
What about you and me?
What about you and me?
Priests
Priests
Diaconate ordination
Receive the Word of God
Believe what you read
Preach what you believe
Practise what you preach
We received a different instruction at priesthood ordination
it didn’t remove the earlier one
it added to it.
I’d bet that we all have tried to fulfill that diaconal ministry
and maybe suffered some consequences for it.
Religious and others here
Religious and others here
Baptism
May the Lord open your ears to receive his word
and your mouth to proclaim his praise.
You do it differently that we priests, but more influentially:
By your words
your demeanor
your kindness and generosity.
A deacon or priest speaks to 100, 500 or 1,000 people
But if each one of you lives a life of kindness and generosity according to the Gospel
you also are preaching and reaching many more people than one priest ever could.
Priests
Priests
I haven’t forgotten you.
I can almost hear your thoughts:
I’m retired,
I’m preaching only to a few, or maybe not preaching any more.
Why do I have to think about preaching?
Tu es sacerdos in aeternum …
We never stop being priests
or leave behind our baptism (or our humanity)
I’ll bet that each of us reaches far more people than we would imagine
by prayer, word, kindness
even if we don’t step out of our rooms.
Jeremiah was called to proclaim a hard word, one people didn’t want to hear
much less obey.
He was obstructed, imprisoned, his life was threatened but he persisted.
So: what’s my excuse? What’s yours?