Where One's Joy and the Happiness Lie

In today’s  first reading, Jeremiah 15: 10, 16-21, the prophet cries out to the Lord: “Woe to me…that you gave me birth!”  He is upset that others are cursing him, though he’s done them no wrong.  He then reminds the Lord that “[w]hen I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart, because I bore your name, O Lord, God of Hosts….Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?....Thus the Lord answered me: If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence you shall stand; If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece….I am with you, to deliver you and rescue you, says the Lord. I will free you from the hand of the wicked, and rescue you from the grasp of the violent.”

What a message!  God is always on our side ready to deliver us from evil, ready to protect us from wicked schemes, waiting for us to repent of our wrongdoing rather than complaining about what we judge as the wrongdoing of others.  Am I doing my part? Am I devouring God Word from the Holy Scriptures?  Is my joy and happiness rooted in the fact that I bear God’s name, that I have been created in the image and likeness of God, that I have been baptized into Christ and will rise with Christ as I die to anything that is not of God within my being: attitudes of pride, hopelessness, faithlessness, prejudice, envy, jealousy, hatred, and so on.  If I do these things, I truly, according to today’s Gospel, Matthew 13: 44-46, have found the pearl of great price, as I will then “sell all” that is not of God and clothe myself in grace.