Who Deceives?

Reflection on Today's Readings, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A, 30th August, 2020
Texts: Jer. 20:7-9; Ps.63:2-6.8-9; Matt. 16:21-27
God does not deceive. The Penny Catechism says, "I must believe whatever God has revealed because God is the very Truth, and can neither deceive nor be deceived". It is devil who deceives, not God. Scriptures say, "The huge dragon was thrown out - that ancient serpent, called the Devil or Satan, that deceived the whole world" (Rev. 12:9). Jesus Christ calls him the father of liars (John 8:44).
Then what are we to make out of Jeremiah's word: "O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed". We experience deception when we look at God's will from worldly standard. We experience deception when we want God's will to be fulfilled at our own time and place. We are deceived by our own desires; we want to subject God's will to our own desires. God sent Jeremiah to accomplish two things: to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant (1:10). Till the time he made the complain, his message had always being the first part, to destroy and to overthrow. Hence, he said, For whenever I speak, I cry, I shout, 'Violence and destruction!' If his message had been about the second part his condition would have been different. The king and the people did not want to hear message of violence and destruction, but message of peace and consolation. Prophets who give message of Peace and consolation are popular in the royal court and among the people. Sometimes we can be deceived as result of the challenges facing us.
St. Peter, in today's gospel reading,  rebukes Jesus Christ for saying he is going to suffer. This is because Peter understands the Messiah from worldly perspective: a king who has come to be served and conquer the world with sword. However, Jesus has come to serve, not to be served, and to conquer the world by his cross. Many a time we also think like Peter and prophet Jeremiah, trying to understand our faith from worldly perspective. The second reading encourages us not to be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewal of our minds, that we may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect". Unless we lift our minds and gazes from the earth, we will find it difficult to understand the will of God and our faith.
Jesus Christ understands perfectly the will of God for him because he has denied himself and offer himself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Unless we deny ourselves and offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to him, we cannot know his will. The denial of ourselves manifests in accepting our our crosses and follow Jesus Christ. That was what Jeremiah found difficult to do. When we deny ourselves we no longer seek our lives but ready to lose our lives for God's sake. Then, we can say that we have offered ourselves to God as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to him.
We also learn from Jesus Christ the right attitude to suffering; it is an acceptance of what God offer us daily. St. James says, "Consider it a great joy when trials of many kinds come upon you, for you well know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, and perseverance must complete its work so that you will become fully developed, complete, lacking nothing" (1:2-4). This is unlike Jeremiah who did not want what God offered him, but wanted something else.
Dear friends, God does not deceive and cannot be deceived; we experience deception when we cling to ourselves and are worldly in our thoughts.

May God's words dwell in our hearts. Amen.