Jeremiah was a bullfrog

Was a good friend of mine.  Never understood a single word he said, but I helped him drink his wine.

And he always had really fine wine!

Growing up, this would play in the car along with La Bamba, and the California Raisins.  All I remember is the joy to the world part.

Are you getting nostalgic, Joe?

No, self, it’s just a good opening for what I need to blog about.  Not everything is ALS related, SHEESH!

I’m putting this out because Fr Noah hit a grand slam touchdown golazo from deep three-point range today in his homily, and God blessed me with ALS because if I had been able to stand and cheer, I would have!  Of course, this is just another perversion of the Novus Ordo… Wait, wrong thread!  No, I also restrained myself because mass is not the appropriate time for that, and Fr Noah probably wouldn’t have liked it.

So, what did Fr “both barrels” Morey say?  Well, Reader-land, it’s about a bullfrog.

Jeremiah, with that most pro-life of passages, begins with the call.

The word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

And it continues later;

But do you gird your loins;
stand up and tell them
all that I command you.
Be not crushed on their account,
as though I would leave you crushed before them;
for it is I this day
who have made you a fortified city,
a pillar of iron, a wall of brass,
against the whole land:
against Judah’s kings and princes,
against its priests and people.
They will fight against you but not prevail over you,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

Emphasis mine.

Boy, go out and tell them, amiright?  I’ve been hellfire and brimstone lately.  I’ve even called a bishop cowardly.  This passage makes me feel vindicated and sweet.  Right?

Oh, wait, the second reading to the Corinthians… The love passage…  Fr Noah added that without doing it in love, it is nothing.   And that crushed me because I have been crying out in outrage, and I want the other side to change, but I am not loving them.  And my Godson was telling me about his work stuff and dealing with these issues, and I am so impressed by the charity he has, and I don’t.

So I am a clanging gong…  Oof, Father, why couldn’t you let me hang out in the First Self Righteous Church?  That is why we pray for our priests, so that they know the Faith, practice it, and preach it.  All Saints Parish won’t let you be Self Righteous, they will teach the Truth.  Even when it hurts.

So two things here.  Both Fr Noah and my podcast the Lanky Guys touch and explain the second reading giving meaning to the first, a la Scott Hahn, so I am linking what they said, and I will explore more of Jeremiah.  Because this book, it is a powerful reminder to us Christians how we are the people of Israel, and the Word is Living.  Are we, who are enlightened with the fullness of revelation in Jesus, above God’s justice?

Jeremiah, called to speak unpleasant truths to Israel in a time when they had a holy king, had the most difficult message.  Israel will be destroyed.  But they were in the middle of good times!?!  He couldn’t possibly mean Israel will be destroyed!  “Let’s make fun of him, and eventually, try to kill him because we don’t want to hear what he’s saying anymore!”

And there are many chapters of this message.  The bones of rulers left to dry out in fields, the nation of Israel to be rotted away like a cloth buried underground.  And you know what?  Israel didn’t want to hear it, and I’m pretty sure they killed Jeremiah.  I can’t imagine why…

“they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves.² They will spread them out to the sun, the moon and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served, and which they have gone after and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or buried; they will be as dung on the face of the ground.”

Seriously folks, READ JEREMIAH!  It will give you chills, the parallels of modern times.  Back to Fr Noah though, there is more he said.  We are not called to be of the world, but in it.  Meaning if we are Christian we shouldn’t resemble those who mock or fight Christianity.  And it is hard because we all are guilty of it.  Heck, I’m going off about abortion and where has my voice been for so many years?  Well, I have friends that don’t believe the same things I do, so I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.  How cowardly is that?

And I could stay silent, hoping I will be liked and shared and people will support my family after I’m dead because I was nice.

Or, maybe, getting down to Jeremiah chapter 20…

O Lord, thou hast deceived me,
    and I was deceived;
thou art stronger than I,
    and thou hast prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
    every one mocks me.
⁸ For whenever I speak, I cry out,
    I shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
    a reproach and derision all day long.
⁹ If I say, “I will not mention him,
    or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
    shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
    and I cannot.

What a coward I am.  Here a man imprisoned, threatened with death.  Yet he CANNOT stop proclaiming the Word of God.  And I’m just here in mah chair hoping not to offend anyone.

Do we Christians know God’s Word well enough that we can’t hold it in?  Even for someone’s eternal soul?  I sure don’t, so I stand rebuked by Fr Noah, and the Lanky Guys, and Jeremiah, and Preachy Paul, and everyone I have spoken to without love.  You do have time to listen to the podcast and to Fr’s homily.  And we also know what is true.  We all have to stand up, not be silent.  Otherwise, what do we profess?

Also, it’s amazing what writing does.  This was not where I was planning on going at ALL, but I ended up here.  At the First Self Righteous Church.